Ads
related to: romex wire sizes
Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In North America, this type of cable is designated as NM cable. NM means "nonmetallic", referring to the outer sheathing; the conductors are still metallic. NM was first listed and described in the NEC in 1926, but it was invented a few years earlier by the Rome Wire Company in 1922 in Rome, New York, and marketed under the trade name "Romex". [2]
Wire sized 1 AWG is referred to as "one gauge" or "No. 1" wire; similarly, thinner sizes are pronounced "x gauge" or "No. x" wire, where x is the positive-integer AWG number. Consecutive AWG wire sizes thicker than No. 1 wire are designated by the number of zeros: No. 0, often written 1/0 and referred to as "one-aught" or "single-aught" wire
A wire or cable has a voltage (to neutral) rating and a maximum conductor surface temperature rating. The amount of current a cable or wire can safely carry depends on the installation conditions. The international standard wire sizes are given in the IEC 60228 standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission.
In both those instances the white wire should be identified as being hot, usually with black tape inside junction boxes. The neutral wire is identified by gray or white insulated wire, perhaps using stripes or markings. With lamp cord wire the ribbed wire is the neutral, and the smooth wire is the hot. NEC 2008 400.22(f) allows surface marking ...
Also, the size of the aluminum wire needs to be larger compared to copper wire used for the same circuit due to the increased resistance of the aluminum alloys. For example, a 15 A branch circuit supplying standard lighting fixtures can be installed with either #14 AWG copper building wire or #12 AWG aluminum building wire according to the NEC.
In commerce, the sizes of wire are estimated by devices, also called gauges, which consist of plates of circular or oblong form having notches of different widths around their edges to receive wire and sheet metals of different thicknesses. Each notch is stamped with a number, and the wire or sheet, which just fits a given notch, is stated to ...