ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion U.S. Romex vs. U.K. "Twin & earth"

Around the mid to late 70s.
Very conveniently we also changed to using insulated earths about the same time so if you find an installed T&E with a bare earth wire in it you know it's imperial.

WOULD YOU BELEIVE THE PAPER IN ROMEX IS TO PREVENT FLASH FIRE FROM OCCURING

Larry - twin and earth with UK old colours is available on Ebay in 100m reels depending on how much you're willing to spend on getting some!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1-5-twin-and-...9228QQcategoryZ57215QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Bob,
How? The amount of copper is the same for solid and stranded and given the skin effect, yes a very small effect at 60 hz, the impedance of stranded should be slightly less.
If you haven't tried stranded how do you know?
Don

Come to Canada then. We have red/black 12/2 NMB (called NMD-90 here, no paper though) up the wazoo. It is mostly used for electric heating, but I have seen it used for switchloops. It comes in red sheathing instead of yellow or white.


[This message has been edited by classicsat (edited 04-17-2006).]

Don't know, I also did not say I believed it, only that I read it a few years ago in one of the trade magazines.


I never said we don't use stranded.

All our cable (smaller than 8) is solid, many (most) of the jobs are specified solid.

As I said the EMT job I am doing now the wire type is not specified so it is up to me. I will choose stranded, although the supply house already sent out solid 10 Green.

Bob

Bob,
It is about 15% more expensive than solid, so don't get me in trouble with your estimator if you don't make up the additional material costs with a reduction in the labor costs.
Don

The paper in NM cable is there to help protect the conductors from abrasion and keep the shape of the cable, sort of like Juting did years ago...do you remember the juting?

German NYM and Austrian YM (basically the same stuff) have a soft rubber filler. Quality cables with rubber filler are real easy to strip. Only nick the sheath all the way around, bend the cable and pull off the sheath. Love it!

Strande isn't really used for fixed domestic wiring here (many people even believe it's illegal). I really prefer solid for anything up to 10mm2!

At a friend's place somebody wired the bathroom with 2.5mm2 stranded. He did an extreme hack job, only connecting half of the strands (it's a miracle the place never burnt down!). When we tried to reterminate it correctly, using ferrules I hated it! Most of all getting the wires into the choc blocks was crazy work! We ended up repulling everything using 2.5mm2 solid.

Although British 2.5 sq. mm "T&E" has solid conductors, when it comes to singles for use in conduit, 2.5 is available in both solid and stranded.