Jed Lee
11-13-2012, 02:56 PM
I'm "upgrading" our smoke detectors in a 3-story home. I'm interconnecting the smoke detectors with 18 AWG and placing all of them on a single 15 amp circuit.
I'm running into an issue of continuing the circuit from the first floor to the basement. The most practical place for me to interconnect the smoke detectors and continue the circuit is going through a downstream panel, which is located in the garage and easily accessible.
The only other alternative would be to tear up a finished interior wall, which would cause me to incur more time and money - something I want to avoid.
I may be wrong, but what I want to do probably is described as using the downstream panel as a raceway. This seems to be addressed in 312.8.
Unfortunately, I think the interpretation of 312.8 is based upon who you talk to (especially reading through this forum!). Ultimately, I realize that it's my county inspector that will pass/fail me. Still, I would like to have some arguments in favor of what I want to do.
Thoughts?
I'm running into an issue of continuing the circuit from the first floor to the basement. The most practical place for me to interconnect the smoke detectors and continue the circuit is going through a downstream panel, which is located in the garage and easily accessible.
The only other alternative would be to tear up a finished interior wall, which would cause me to incur more time and money - something I want to avoid.
I may be wrong, but what I want to do probably is described as using the downstream panel as a raceway. This seems to be addressed in 312.8.
Unfortunately, I think the interpretation of 312.8 is based upon who you talk to (especially reading through this forum!). Ultimately, I realize that it's my county inspector that will pass/fail me. Still, I would like to have some arguments in favor of what I want to do.
Thoughts?