EMT questions

[exranger06]

I just brought in a handy box from the bunch I have out in the garage and the inside specs are 3 3/4"x 2"x 1 3/4". This gives 13 1/8 cubic inches. I used 14 gauge wire so unless there's something wrong with that I guess I'm OK.

It's kind of hard to believe that it would violate code to connect an outlet in an outlet box using 14 gauge wire.

Dennis

14 gauge wire takes up 2 cu in. A receptacle takes 4 cu in (take the cu in of the wire used and multiply by 2). So if you have a hot leg and neutral coming in, and a hot leg and neutral going out to the next receptacle, along with ground wires going in and out (ground wire gets counted as one wire, even if there are multiple ground wires spliced together), you have a total of 5 14 gauge wires. Time for some math:
5 wires * 2 cu in = 10 cu in
1 receptacle * 4 cu in = 4 cu in
10 cu in + 4 cu in = 14 cu in total

14 cu in is more than the 13.13 cu in capacity of the box. Your installation is not up to code.

 

[sberry]

Get rid of the ground. They have their place, not for use everywhere. Lots of times its 3 wires to a box, not 5, 2 switched wires, a white one. White passing thru and a switched black.