Electrical tape

[Zibby Swieca]

Electrical white tape around neutral wire.
Do you write it or not?
Thanks

[Donald Merritt]

This is just another method of marking the neutral. You see all the time in commercial electrical panels.

Don Merritt
Germantown, Tennessee

[Jerry Peck]

Nope.

[Eric Barker]

Also nope.

[Victor DaGraca]

Must be "permanently" marked.

I don't see a main disconnect.
Is this the service entrance panel?
if it's downstream, the neutrals and grounds are on the same bar.....

Top left breaker.... is that insulation scorched?

[Jim Robinson]

I thought that the "permanently marked" aspect was for a white wire coded as a conductor, not for a black wire coded as the grounded conductor.

[Victor DaGraca]

2006 IRC

E3307.1 Grounded conductors. Insulated grounded conductors
of sizes 6 AWGor smaller shall be identified by a continuous
white or gray outer finish or by three continuous white
stripes on other than green insulation along the entire length of
the conductors. Conductors of sizes larger than 6AWGshall be
identified either by a continuous white or gray outer finish or
by three continuous white stripes on other than green insulation
along its entire length or at the time of installation by a distinctive
white or gray marking at its terminations. This marking
shall encircle the conductor or insulation.


E.3307.2
..............Equipment grounding conductors larger than 6 AWG that
are not identified as required for conductors of sizes 6 AWG
and smaller shall, at the time of installation, be permanently
identified as an equipment grounding conductor at each end
and at every point where the conductor is accessible, except
where such conductors are bare.


I might be wrong.... and... I am no electician.... and.... I might have mis-interpreted... but... from what I'm reading.. It needs to be permanently marked.

Question is.... what is permanent?
tape? paint?

[Jerry Peck]

I thought that the "permanently marked" aspect was for a white wire coded as a conductor, not for a black wire coded as the grounded conductor.

Correct. If the white tape comes off, you suspect it is 'hot', and thus would typically treat it with a greater level of safety than you would a neutral.

[Jerry Peck]

(bold is mine)



2006 IRC
E3307.1 Grounded conductors.
...
Conductors of sizes larger than 6AWG shall be


identified either by a continuous white or gray outer finish or
by three continuous white stripes on other than green insulation
along its entire length or at the time of installation by a distinctive
white or gray marking at its terminations. This marking
shall encircle the conductor or insulation.





The above covers neutral (grounded) conductors.




Question is.... what is permanent?
tape? paint?



Tape is not permanent, paint is, however, with neutral conductors larger than 6 AWG have the option to be white or have those markings around its ends at the terminations. And that is not needed to be permanent.


Now, using a white conductor for a hot (ungrounded) conductor, that is different, and that is where the "permanent" part, and the "by painting" part, comes in.


The easy way to remember this is: If the tape comes off, is the insulation color going to make it 'less safe' to handle? If white tape comes off black or red, no, it will not be 'less safe', so that is okay. However, if black or red tape comes off a white conductor, that would be 'less safe' as you might think it is a grounded neutral when it is really an ungrounded hot.

[Jerry Peck]

Ha-ha!

I see what you may have been referring to ...

Not the neutral conductor, but to the untaped white conductors at the breakers ... ???

THOSE - those would require permanent re-identification 'by painting' ... tape is not good enough for those (and either no attempt was made to re-identify those or the tape has already fallen off.

[Victor DaGraca]

Jerry:
Wouldn't the cable in the picture (with white tape) be considered a grounded conductor?
after all, the neutrals and grounds are "bonded" by being attached to the same bar.

[Jerry Peck]

Jerry:
Wouldn't the cable in the picture (with white tape) be considered a grounded conductor?

Yes. And that is why it is okay (it is also larger than a #6 AWG).

If it were an ungrounded conductor, it would not be okay - which is what I was pointing out about the white conductors going to the breakers.

[Victor DaGraca]

I know that the whites going to the breakers "shall be" permanently identified as conductors.

I have yet to see it done though........... not even tape..........

[Shannon Guinn]

I know that the whites going to the breakers "shall be" permanently identified as conductors.

I have yet to see it done though........... not even tape..........


I know what you mean victor, as a fairly new EI for my county, I am running into this on just about every final that I do. "Well the old inspector didn't make us do it that way", the code is the code, I didn't write it but I get paid to enforce it.:)