wire splicing

[dean whited]

Issue-the house currently has 14g electrical wiring on 15 amp breaker. He wants to splice in 8 ft of wiring into the system with appropriate junction boxes. Problem-the only wire he has is 12g (unless he buys a roll of 14g). Can he use the 12g as a substitute (keeping the 15 amp breaker)?

[Matt Fellman]

I'll give you the non-technical answer as I'm sure someone will be along shorty to give you the technical one.

Yes and no. Yes, you could and never have a problem with it. But.... it's a good idea (might even be required) to have all the wiring on a circuit match so there's never any confusion later. Example - breaker keeps tripping, someone finds the 12 gauge wire on the circuit and assumes the wrong breaker was installed and swaps it out with a 20-amp. Of course, there are a lot of assumptions and someone would have to be a real dummy to not realize there is 14 gauge at the breaker as they are changing it but it's nice to set things up to be totally fool-proof.

btw.... how far is the store? Why not just get some 14 gauge? I have a bunch in my garage - maybe I could just mail you a piece :)

[John Kogel]

Buy a 10 ft chunk of #14 at your local hardware store, even in North Dakota. Make it 11 feet because just the right length is always a little short. :)

[Jerry Peck]

Dean,

Matt pointed out that it was okay, and the problems when doing so.

At some point in the future someone may think they can replace that 15 breaker with a 20 amp breaker, and that would not be good.

I'm guessing your friend could go to any hardware store and buy as much 14 AWG NM cable as he needs - buying it "by the foot".

Most of the Big Box stores are now carrying NM cable in 25 foot and 50 foot boxes too. No need to buy 250 feet of it.

[John Kogel]

Hey, I beat JP by 2 minutes. :):)