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Subject - Romex in Flex?
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Jeremy
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Long time listener, first time caller here. I'm a lighting desigenr by trade, but grampa had 50 years with the IBEW - I think the knack for electrical skipped my father's generation.
So, my question pertains to running Romex through flex for short, protected runs. What are restrictions? I've seen it run through a firewall in flex, with the ends filled with fire caulking. How does one protect the romex from the sharp edge of the flex?
Can I run Romex through 30" of Flex to cruss through an air return plenum in a condominium? (State of California - none of that crazy Chicago plenum stuff here)
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zapped208
| The NEC permits romex to run through a cold air returns in dwelling units, as long as the return is not duct work. It has to be floor joists that have been panned out.
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Ryan_J
| 300.16 of the 2002 requires a fitting to be installed at the end of the raceway...
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Jeremy
| Thank you gentlemen.
I am still curious under what conditions one would run romex through flex, (with fastening hardware - a tip of the hat to Ryan) as well as any length restrictions.
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Ryan_J
| Hi Jeremy. This is a hot issue in the 2002 NEC, as far as the length goes. The raceway articles of the code say that you may install cables in raceways that are installed as complete raceway systems if the respective cable article allows it. The type NM cable(romex) does article is silent on the issue. That leads one to beleive that there may be a lenght limitation, but it is not in the code. I have the pleasure of sitting on the board of directors for the Utah chapter of IAEI alongside a gentleman who serves on CMP 7 of the NEC, which governs the cable articles. He was telling me that in the re-construction of chapter 3 in the 2002, this was simply an oversight between the cable gods and the raceway gods....the intent was to allow NM cable in any raceway of any length. There was a tentative interim amendment to the 2005 to try to address this, but it was submitted very late and therefore has been shelved to the 2008, pending review from the technical correlating committe. So...the question is...if I don't go from a J-box to a J-box, do I have a "complete raceway system"? What if it is 100 feet long? 10 feet?
As far as your other question goes, I see this every day on furnaces. The NM cable is in the ceiling then goes into the switch for the furnace via NM cable.
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