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Required to sheath ground in green? What on earth for? That makes ground less effective since you want any incidental contact with ground to ground the object t
by newZWhoDis 4y ago
Required to sheath ground in green? What on earth for? That makes ground less effective since you want any incidental contact with ground to ground the object touching it.
- actionfromafar 4y agoIt was probably sheathed in black or some other color originally.
- londons_explore 4y agoElectrical specs are very strict. They aren't just about electrical safety directly, but also about not potentially confusing people in the future. If the cable was black, then someone may not have known that it was an earth cable, and might have cut it, which would leave your electrical installation unsafe. Thats the reasoning why using the wrong color for a wire can make it illegal.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vel0city 4y agoThat's the thing though: the best choice for a ground wire is no color at all, just the raw copper wire.
- BitwiseFool 4y agoThe part of the wire that is connected to the grounding object has no sheathing, but the length of the cable is insulated. The old cable was the same way. The coating was black and looked identical to the other wires running through the wall. I assume the justification for the code is that it makes the ground wire visually distinct.
- micromacrofoot 4y agoBecause without a common language for what color wires carry load a simple oversight can be fatal.
- frosted-flakes 4y agoExcept a bare wire is always a ground.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bluGill 4y agoI believe that either a bare wire or a green wire is allowed. However no other colors. That was the case ~6 years ago when I checked the NEC.
- DannyBee 4y agoBare is allowed depending. It is only required to be "primarily green". So the common alternative of green with yellow stripe is also allowed. You can reidentify black cable if it's large enough gauge (6 awg currently).
- georgeoliver 4y agoI was a little surprised to read the original comment too. I've never seen a sheathed ground wire used in WA state (on residential).
- sowbug 4y ago"What on earth for?" rimshot
- stjohnswarts 4y agohow in the world would it make it less effective? that doesn't make any sense. If it's properly done, it's equivalent.
- DannyBee 4y agoBare ground is allowed in lots of cases. The requirement is that insulated ground wires must be primarily green (IE green with yellow stripe is okay), but this is actually not new. They must be > 6 awg to pull black and use green tape on the ends. See 250.119. This has been the case for a very long time though, at least since 2007 NEC. I don't have handy copies around for before then.