Electrical raceways

[ph1gering]

Trying to think for the future, I plan on running 4ft of ply wood up my walls, then an electrical channel around the entire building, then finish above that with metal panels.

My goal is to be able to add or change things around the shop if i need to with out have to run conduit every where etc..

I was thinking of a 4" wide channel running around the entire building that I would make all my runs in. Something like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20x-Cable-R...=US_Cable_Ties_Organizers&hash=item2587823929

What do you think? Good idea? bad idea? can't use that for electrical?

 

[ph1gering]

I wont be using the sticky back, i would screw it down..

 

[rockwithjason]

It depends on if you want to be legal or not. If you do then you need to get smart on the rules for this kind of raceway. You will need to pay special attention to derating wire and exposure to physical damage. You will also need to figure out a grounding plan. For my money i would run several pipes into the attic and then drop romex into the walls as needed or run surface mpint emt

 

[ph1gering]

I guess thats what i am trying to figure out, i know someplaces only allow 4' sections anything more than that is considered subject to damage or something..

The grounding would be in the romex, i just was planning on running romex inside the raceways, just to keep it neat and allow me to add an additional line somewhere easy in the furture if needed.

Guess a call to the town inspector is advised here..

 

[Falcon67]

Not enough room in that channel for much of anything. "Cable" means co-ax, phone and network. Power is run in wiremold, but mostly I see that as individual drops to a plug on a hard surface. Besides, having a perimeter channel for running wire likely means you'll use a lot more wire to get from here to there. I'd be looking at something more like this - but not sure even if that is code compliant for power.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-NEW-2-X-2...323?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item417d1d86eb

 

[yeldogt]

I was thinking of doing the same thing -- sort of a shelf at 48"with a box under it .. unfortunately once you fully enclose the channel it is turns into a code monster.

My inspector told me a could surface wire and then have a shield in front -- sort of the same thing except the bottom is open.

I'm still trying to figure it out.

I'm not sure where my bigger 220v stuff is going to be placed .. so having the flexibility to move an outlet is a plus. I don't want to have 20 220v outlets all over the place.

 

[ph1gering]

yeah i just dont want to finish the space then have the it would be nice to have a line here etc..

Falcon i saw that too, the ones i am looking at at 3x2 and say they hold about 11 runs of 12/2 in them. I would probably only have 4 circuits in them for my outlets, lighting, gargae door, etc and other stuff will be above the ceilings. This is mainly just so if i wanted to change the outlets or add one somewhere i could, of if i found i wanted something to be on its own circuit.. etc.. probably over kill..

Maybe i'll just run them all, but make some sort of 8" access panel that i could take off easy if i wanted to get back to them. And the inspector is only checking the main run and one outlet. After i get my sign off i am doing all this..

 

[alfredeneuman]

Nonmetallic wireways are subject to the same derating for number of conductors as if they were in conduit.

11 runs of 12-2 will have 22 current carrying conductors, and would have to be derated to 45% of it's ampacity, which figures out to 15Amps You wouldn't be able to use any larger than a 15Amp circuit breaker.

Metallic wireways have no such restrictions until you have 30+ conductors. Then it would be treated the same as if it were in conduit.

Both metallic and nonmetallic are limited to a 20% maximum fill.

 

[JoeFin]

My goal is to be able to add or change things around the shop if i need to with out have to run conduit every where etc..

I was thinking of a 4" wide channel running around the entire building that I would make all my runs in. Something like this:

What do you think? Good idea? bad idea? can't use that for electrical?

That's how we do High Speed Bottling Lines

Regardless of what all the Wanna-Bees are going to tell you

 

[blackcube]

As a retired master electrician, those raceways are usually used for power limited low voltage data, voice and signalling circuits. How are you planning to make your drops out of such a shallow raceway? Cutting that non-metallic raceway to fit a Tee while it's full of live circuits wouldn't be fun.

Joefin, we used to run a pair of parallel 12"x12" metallic ducts over the high speed packaging lines we used to install, one duct for power and motor leads and the other for instrumentation cables. We dropped PVC coated rigid conduit through the ceiling down to the lines to make connections. The Kraft and Nabisco plants I serviced were notorious for reworking their packaging lines often, so with the duct running from the control deck and MCC mezzanine we could be very flexible when reconfiguring.

I thought about a 4x4 wire duct around the walls of my shop but decided to just set a 100a sub-panel in every corner of the shop to service that quadrant. My shop is 30x60 and I really didn't want to incur the line losses of running a 20a circuit over 150 to a plug. No I just run an EMT conduit where I need it for the closest sub-panel.

 

[ph1gering]

I choose not to go this route. Instead after running all my main lines I ran two pieces of conduit from the box into the ceiling of the shop. That way if i ever need to add a line i can fish one through into the ceiling and then fish it down into any wall i need.

 

[sands35]

For industrial machine shops where I work, they have metal raceway enclosures running the whole length of the shop hung from the ceiling. 6" or so square cross section. But then we're talking power for 3 phase 480 VAC CNC mills and such. But those are really expensive and carry UL/IEC ratings. Works great and cost effective for an industrial application, but not for a garage.

ph1gering has it right. Just run some conduit up to the attic and pull what you need later.

I mounted my electrical box proud of the wall so I can add stuff later if needed. My AHJ will allow romex exposed from the box to the attic - the romex is up 6-7' and my garage is a separate structure than the house. Eventually, I'll build a box around it for aesthetic reasons.

Somebody else put in conduit before the floor pour. Ran it from the electrical box to each of the other corners.

You could put in ~2" or so PVC with T type boxes every so often and a loop of THHN. You'll need to stub off the T with a short section and a cap to seal it up. Cut if off and add on what you need later. A 12" loop of TNNN, a hot or two, neutral and a ground, so you can cut and nut off a new feeder to an outlet. IMHO, that is too much work.

Just put in more outlets to start with and plan your shop's layout as best you can before you start. The only difficult stuff to re-do later is the bigger draw stuff like welders or perhaps a compressor. Haven an idea where that will go before you start.