ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area PVC Conduit

Don, thanks;
I sure wish you could wake up some of the building departments out here in SoCA.
As I look around the spot I'm sitting right now, I see almost nothing but plastics.
How much can a conduit system contribute to this if it were to burn?
To use PVC as an indoor premise wiring system here would result, I think, in a red tag 9 times out of 10.
I got a very "mad" correction notice once for installing a section of 2" PVC80 for a phone line on the roof of a restaurant in Newport Beach---the threat of chlorine gas.
In the next city North, Huntington Beach, it is a requirement to use PVC80 on a rooftop, or use $70 a gallon marine grade paint to paint the entire installation of your metallic conduit.
They're separated by the Santa Ana River, about 150 yards wide.

I saw my van burn to the ground, that's about all the exp I have with fire, but I'm sure that a couple of pieces of PVC conduit wouldn't have made much difference in the show, nor its danger...S

Almost all of the PVC conduit used out here is either underground, underslab, in masonry or concrete walls, or outdoors.



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 02-19-2004).]

Hang on Guys!,
We use PVC over here in New Zealand exclusively in Commercial and Industrial Installations.
PVC is (these days, at least) Flame Retardant, Self Extinguishing.
At least the stuff we have here is.
WE don't use EMT or IMC over here.
For real rugged uses we usually use HFT grade(Black) PVC conduit or for Boiler rooms and the like we use Pyrotenax MIMS (Mineral-Insulated-Metal-Sheathed cables).
PVC has the advantages of not having to be threaded, is easy to work with and it is light in weight.
Disadvantages are that, with it being a Thermosetting material, a given length of PVC will expand and contract under temperature changes and expansion couplings have to be used in any decent run of conduit.
Here's a strange one, care of one of my older Electrician's textbooks: If PVC conduit is used, a seperate Earth Continuity Conductor must be added.
Duh!!.
Steel conduit used to be used as the Earth(grounding) Conductor here, when we used the stuff.