Bundled wire - i.e. Romax type

[rcrainman]

I have been told that Romax wire shouldn't be run through an type of conduit. Is this correct????

[LazyPup]

That is correct. If a cable such as romax is run through a conduit the conduit prevents the cable from properly dissipating any heat that may be created by the current flow, which then results in overheating the wire.

[frankinlombard]

Personally I don't see what the big deal is. I have been doing electrical work for over 20 years, and the occasion does arise for the need to sleeve shielded wire in conduit. You shield the wire through conduit when bringing underground wire in to a garage and sometimes when bringing service entry wire into a house from the meter socket. If a 200 amp service won't generate enough heat inside conduit, then I fail to see how #12 shielded wire will overheat.

Just my 2 cents.

[Rewired]

Yep, I actually agree with BOTH Franklombard and LazyPup.
In Canada, as far as I know it is allowed to run Romex in a pipe but WHY would you want to anyway? It is going to be a pain in the rear to pull the cable into the pipe, and its going to be more $$ to use romex, so why bother??? Also, if you DO decide to do it the hard way and any part of the conduit is underground, you MUST use direct burial cable in the conduit because eventually, water IS going to get into the pipe... and you will have to oversize the pipe to allow the big underground cable to fit and be able to get it out in future if you ever have to, so you are better off just running a conduit with single conductors of the proper type anyway... ( just a note, I NEVER use direct burial cable.. too easy to damage, and if that happens you might as well start digging it all up... If the installation MUST be a cable of some sort and buried, I will use "TECK-90"... armoured, and very tough but expen$ive...
As for using conduit to shield a SINGLE romex cable.. That shouldn't cause a problem at all as its going to be a short piece of conduit, and there is only going to be 2 or 3 current carrying conductors in the cable thats in the sleeve of conduit so very little if any heat will be built up... IF you are using ONE piece of conduit to sleeve more than one romex cable then you can have heat build-up BETWEEN the cables... THAT is a problem, that cannot be done.
( Another note, an inspector told me that cables shouldn't even be run and bundled in more than groups of 2.. this is to allow air space between them, in groups of 3+, heat builds up in the center of the bundle...

Just my 2 cents as well

A.D

[HayZee518]

Code says you have to run cable in a pipe of some sort to protect against mechanical damage, but not to the extent of wiring a whole house or underground run with romex in it. There's direct burial cable for that. I have used two inch pvc to protect 2/3 aluminum cable on the side of a house in one of the major cities in NY.

[fred1949]

Romex in conduit???

I've read you are not supposed to run romex in conduit. What if you are in a situation where your romex is running through your joist & you need a outlet on your exterior wall, shouldn't the romex be in conduit from the point where it leaves the joist area and comes down the oncrete wall?

Fred

[HayZee518]

exterior of a concrete wall, drill a hole run a short piece of emt to a connector in a weatherproof box. stick the emt through the hole and fasten the box to the wall. now the romex run would be a max of one foot through the wall/sleeve into the box. nobody's gonna complain about this.
by the way they make a romex - transition fitting for emt. has a screw for the emt and a two screw clamp for the romex.

[kactuskid]

If by chance you're talking about installing a receptacle on the inside of the exterior basement wall then you can just sleeve the romex between the receptacle box and the bottom of the ceiling joist. This is perfectly fine and recommended to protect the cable.

Just drill a 1/2 " hole through each floor joist, maintaining a minimum 2" space from the bottom of each joist. Run your cable through these holes so it drops down to the desired location.

Now install a 4x4x1" metal box on the wall using tapcon screws. No need for anchors using these screws, just a level staight hole (use the 3/16, 1 1/4" long tapcons with the hex head and position the box so you drill into the grout joint and not the block if at all possible, and use the tapcon 5/32, 3 1/2" long bit)

Install a 1/2" off set emt connector in the top of the box before attaching to the wall. Cut a piece of 1/2" emt (using a hacksaw) the distance between the box and about 3 inches short of the top of the concrete wall. Install an emt coupler to the end of the conduit or if you can find one of those NM to conduit fittings as Hazy mentioned is even better.

Install the other end of the conduit into the offset on your box. Attach the conduit to the wall using a couple of emt straps held in place with a tapcon screw. Now run your NM cable into the conduit and down into the box, allowing at least 7" of wire in the box. Install a 1/2" raised plaster ring on the box and then wire up your GFCI receptacle to the LINE side. Install a plastic face plate cover over the receptacle.

I would keep the receptacle at minimum 14" above floor level but you can place it 4 feet up on the wall if you prefer. When looking at your ceiling, try to find the straightest route you can. Much easier to pull the cable that way. And keeping the cable a few inches away from heat ducts and water piping is necessary, the further the better. Drilling in the center of the joist is best, so if a heat duct is in any joist cavity, make sure you loop the cable beneath the duct a few inches. You can also drill through a cold air return cavity if necessary, just caulk around the cable to fill the gaps after it's installed.

And use the plastic staples to attach the cable to the joist on parrellel runs.