Electrical Fire

[Mike]

My grandpa had an electricain wire his garage. It's just romex, but it's the weather resistant kind (Gray finish). My garage is finished. My dad wants more outlets in the garage since we only have one in there. He won't let me do the work either, so when we put enough $$$ aside, we'll have an electricain come. It's not a top priority, and we could get it done right now if we wanted to, but there's other things we're gettign doen 1st.

[joe_347V]

The weather resistant romex would probably be type UF or NMWU wire, that's what my street lights originally had.

[Mike]

Yep. I thought it was either UV or U-something. The jacket is a Gray color.

[joe_347V]

Yep that's UF wire, it can be direct buried to run power to posttops for example.

[Mike]

Yeah. The local code allows no conduit above ground as long as it's weather resistant wire apparently.

[joe_347V]

  Not sure if my area allows this but I still prefer using conduit outdoors.

[Mike]

Me too. Public area of course need conduit, but underground areas and areas with no pedestrial traffic  don't need conduit apparently since the electrician didn't use it. I'd fear of wire theives since he lives in downtown Pawtucket.

[joe_347V]

The good thing about conduit is that you don't have to dig everything back up to add/replace wiring.

[Mike]

Yeah. and you don't have to worry about anything accidentally cuttign the wire either. The PVC conduit will break eventually, which is why i like EMT better.

[joe_347V]

Rigid (RMC) would be a better choice outdoors imo.

[Mike]

I was thinking that was EMT as well.

[joe_347V]

See here for a brief overview on the types of steel conduit in use.

[SeanB~1]

I prefer pvc conduit for underground, even for cable that can be buried, as it makes for better cut resistance. Steel conduit is not good here where it will rust away in short order no matter what you do. The only time I will do so is for vandal resistance, and ther I will use a length of steel water piping, as it is thicker and more resistant to cutting. I have put copper water pipe inside cast iron pipe ( that actually did cost more than the copper pipe, but is very hard to cut and is good protection) to deter the copper bandits.

[Mike]

Ahh, I see now.

[joe_347V]

Note that you probably can't find the more specialized conduits and fitting at the box store.