1/0 3 conductor ACWU: how do you bend it??

[jvitez]

I'm having difficulty finding the right cable to run a full 125 amp load. I'm wanting to supply my attached garage with a subpanel at 125 amps to allow future capacity for a detached garage. My US colleagues would use SER cable but that doesn't seem to be available here in Canada. Home Depot only sells wire up to 6/3 copper and no aluminum. Many electrical suppliers are wholesale only. The one I use only stocks cable for 100A and 200A as those are the only two service capacities installed here.

So I try an industrial supplier that does counter sales. The only cable he has that's rated for a full 125 amps is 1/0 aluminum 3C ACWU. My breakers and the subpanel lugs max out at 1/0, so far so good. He cuts me a piece to take home.

Yikes! I can't even bend it across my knee. Now it is a short piece, but how do you bend it?

I need ~120 ft of cable to run from my service panel, 180° bend, then 90° bend to run across the bottom of the floor joists, two 90° bends, through a 2x6 stud wall, then a final 90° bend up into the subpanel. With how stiff this is I don't think it will work. Not for an indoor run anyway.

Has anyone worked with type of cable before? Any tips? And BTW, the conductors are not colour coded. How do I know which wire is which? I'm not a millwright, just a home hobbyist wanting to do the right thing!

 

[winnipegk5]

A longer piece will bend easier. You should try bending the copper version, our guys love using ACWU instead of copper. You will need a sweeping bend you do not and should not put to tight of a bend in the cable.

The black conductirs are usually numbered or lettered or stripped on the insulation so you can tell them apart.

Make sure when you are terminating the cable under the lugs that you use Noalox or Penatrox on both ends.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[pattenp]

I don't know about Canadian electrical code but 3 wire does not meet code here in the US, you need 4 conductors.

 

[jvitez]

Thanks winnipegk5! I wish my dear departed dad was still here, as he was a power electrician and I'm sure worked with cables way bigger than this. He did a lot of transformer work as I remember.

I feared it would need a sweeping bend. It probably won't work then, as I don't have a lot of space by my "professionally" installed service panels that are frankly a crowded mess. With how stiff it is I'd probably be close to the floor as I have to run in out the bottom of the service panel. Conduit would be nightmare for the same reason: multiple bends.

Any idea about other types of cable that might work for a 125 amp load? If nothing's available to me, I'll just have to go with 3/3 NMD90 copper, pay through the nose at $20/metre, and reduce my loads to under 100 amps, but really only as a last resort.

 

[jvitez]

pattenp: interesting. How would that work for a single phase 120/240V circuit? This is 3 conductor plus ground, is the terminology different?

 

[walrus]

The stuff comes on a reel so it bends, I'd try to find a fact sheet for it and they should have minimum bending radius. I used the same thing and had no issue bending it. You could also terminate it onto a correct sized 90 bend(emt,pvc) and then pipe into boxes?

 

[timewarp]

I don't know about Canadian electrical code but 3 wire does not meet code here in the US, you need 4 conductors.

What he has pictured has 4 conductors?

 

[Stuart in MN]

Strictly speaking it's three conductor plus ground, but generally it's assumed this type of cable has a ground wire so it's just referred to as three conductor.

 

[pattenp]

I see that it's 4. My eyes must have been crossed when I first looked at the picture.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Use a conduit bender!

 

[jvitez]

Found this info on the Alcan website:

"The interlocked armour used by Alcan results in a cable
that is more flexible and easier to install than conventional
sheathed cable. Alcan’s interlocked armoured cables can
bend to an inside radius, for permanent installation, as
small as 6 times the cable diameter."

This 1/0 cable is 1.45 in in diam, so an 8.7 inch bend radius? That would work fine! Curiouser, and curiouser said Alice to the Cheshire Cat.

Now what type of anti-short bushing and cable clamp do I need to terminate it into the panelboards?

 

[theoldwizard1]

1/2" or 3/4" conduit bender ?

 

[Norcal]

Get the connectors when you buy the cable.

 

[79firebird]

Short ones are hard to bend. Longer ones will be was eazer to bend.I had to run a 300 amp one for 3 phase thru a building under a walkway into anouther one loads of 90 and 120 dagree bends it was hard but can be done. the run i had to do was about 400 feet took 3 days after work to do it. dam cable is heavy

 

[tfi racing]

Should be easy to bend,just put a bit of muscle into it.I have some 350mcm ACWU sitting here,now that's a bit of a workout to wrestle into place.
The place you grabbed the cable from will have the connectors and huge ant-shorts you need.

 

[walrus]

Don't fall over when you buy the connectors, I don't believe you need anti shorts with the correct connector