Adding new electric and boxes

[Pete]

NOTE: If you are not familiar with working with electric please hire an electrician to do the work.

This is a short pictorical on installation of two electrical boxes, conduit and wiring for said boxes. The wire feed will connect to the same circuit as the rest of the room. The wires are 14 guage.

The box is on one side of the opening attached to the stud. The LV wires will be over to the left one stud over in a LV box about 16 inches when complete. After completion, patching and painting you shouldn't notice any holes.

The most difficult part was putting the conduit piece from the first box to conduit near the base working one piece of conduit behind the holes that were cut and drilling the hole for the conduit as it went thru two layers of wood about 4 inches or so.

Initially tried to pull the wire without the fish tape. I don't think I got past 4-5 feet. There are only 3 bends in the pipe. Always remember to smooth off the edges of the cut pipe as it become very sharp when cut with the pipecutter.

The blue painters tape covers the holes cut for installation of the conduit.

I added a new electrical circuit and dual gang box for the server rack a couple of weeks ago and follow a similiar path but utilized a new breaker with the wires running to the panel. Will post a picture of completed "wall" when painted.

[Steve Q]

Pete, I assume that code in your area requires conduit; it's a lot easier to use "romex" if it is allowed .

Steve Q

[Pete]

Yes code in the area requires conduit. In FL use Romex; it is easier.

[tmcgowan]

What about grounding wires. All I see are White, Black and Red!

[Pete]

No just black and white. Grounding wires go to the boxes as the conduit / boxes are grounded. Each of the boxes has a ground screw in them. The screws are where you see the little nipple inside of the box. (one of the advantages of conduit I guess).

In FL I needed to add another single gang box (plastic) and run 3-wire romex plus ground wire to second box for FIOS demark. I was able to do said endeavor in the same timeframe of installation even running to the local HW store for parts I needed. 30 minutes of time compared to XX minutes for conduit, box and cable run in the MW.

[Steve Q]

Interesting, IL code requires conduit but no ground wire? Does code require that you use metal conduit? Because I would think that a ground wire is a must when using PVC conduit. I have always been skeptical about the quality of the ground if one relies solely on the conduit. So I always include a ground along with the hot and neutral in any conduit. Especially when kitchen and/or bath wiring is involved and GFCI outlets are required.

Steve Q

[Pete]

I am not sure about all of Illinois requiring use of metal EMT conduit. I use it because it was utilized where I lived before (Cook County). Its now code in Will County.

But when EMT is utilized that is your ground. Many electricians prefer to add a third green wire in case the metal EMT comes loose. I have see third ground wire with my GFCI outlets in the kitchen, bathrooms, garage, outdoor and basement outlets.

In our subdivision of 100 homes many of the homes have Romex and it was an option for EMT conduit at the time of construction about 10 years ago. My home was built with EMT metal conduit.

http://www.willcountyillinois.com/Po...Article500.pdf

ARTICLE 500
MINIMUM ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS

509. All electrical services shall be rigid metal conduit, or intermediate metal conduit.

An interesting thing about service that I saw was relating to 200AMP basic and over 300AMP for a larger home. Historically I though that 200AMP was a lot for a home.