white stallion
Member
- Location
- El Paso, Texas
Is welding cable allowed by the NEC for service conductors? Due to tight space restrictions the use of the higher rated welding cables provide more flexibility
Welding cable use for services
- Thread starter white stallion
- Start date
The higher rating for welding cables is usually the rating in free air. The fine stranding may require special treatment, such as thin ferrules.
winnie
Senior Member
- Location
- Springfield, MA, USA
- Occupation
- Electric motor research
Welding cable per se is not allowed by the NEC for service conductors.
Some cables are dual rated as welding cables and cables suitable for NEC use.
When used as an NEC rated cable, you are also limited to standard NEC ampacity calculations. So you wouldn't get any benefit from the higher rating.
Also as noted by @dkidd welding cable is typically fine stranded, and typical connectors are not rated for fine stranded conductors.
Some cables are dual rated as welding cables and cables suitable for NEC use.
When used as an NEC rated cable, you are also limited to standard NEC ampacity calculations. So you wouldn't get any benefit from the higher rating.
Also as noted by @dkidd welding cable is typically fine stranded, and typical connectors are not rated for fine stranded conductors.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
They are not higher rated...when you look at that rating it will be the free air ampacity from the 90°C column...not an ampacity that you can use for typical installations. In addition, as others have said, unless the welding cable is dual marked with something like RHH or RHW it cannot be used in an NEC installations.