Thread: furnace wiring acceptable??

I found this wire running from a j-box into the electric furnace. This was in a manufactured home. I found some more in the crawl space. It looks to me like over sized lamp cord.
Has anyboyd seen this and is it acceptable or was "HARRY" here?

NO, looks like some sort of heavy lamp cord or speaker cable. If it doesn't have labeling on it then pretty much NO no matter.

The red color is usually used for fire alarm cable, but that is not like any fire alarm cable I have seen, that looks like SPT-2 (lamp cord) except that it looks like a different type of insulation than SPT-2 (18-16 gage) has and looks larger, possibly SPT-3 (18-10 gage).

Typically, type SPT-2 is what is referred to as "lamp cord", but "lamp cord" is really type "C" which as a cotton braid on each conductor and is usually used for pendant or portable lamps, whereas SPT-1/-2/-3 is all thermoplastic (also used for pendant or portable lamps).

It is the red color which has me thinking fire alarm wire ...

Nobody said it was a 120 or 240 volt supply cable. It could have been a low-voltage circuit from the thermostat , no?

The MH electric furnace would need a 60 amp feeder, 40 amp at least. No way it was supplied by that thing, or it would be black, not red.

The red wire appears to come out of a j-box that also had what appeared to be romex wire in it. Wiring was not accessible to verify types of wire.
You can see what appeared to be low voltage wiring going to the furnace (that is the nasty brown wire in the picture)

I couldn't get to the wiring since it was tucked in a closet/cubby area blocked by the water heater. I could barely fit my head into the area.

I didn't notice any other wiring to the furnace.

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Nobody said it was a 120 or 240 volt supply cable. It could have been a low-voltage circuit from the thermostat , no?

That is what we are all basing our guesses on - that its use is not as power cable but as low voltage cable ... at least that was my presumption ... we were just commenting on the type of cable it was as power cable can be used for low voltage cable.

Typically, thermostat cable will have 3-4-5-or more conductors within the cable.

The MH electric furnace would need a 60 amp feeder, 40 amp at least. No way it was supplied by that thing, or it would be black, not red.

Originally Posted by cory nystul

I found this wire running from a j-box into the electric furnace. This was in a manufactured home. I found some more in the crawl space. It looks to me like over sized lamp cord.
Has anyboyd seen this and is it acceptable or was "HARRY" here?

.........this is the wire used for electric brakes on all HUD code homes. Wheel assemblies on homes consist of idler axles and brake axles. The brakes are powered by the tow vehicle - there is no connection to the home's electrical (or sure shouldn't be).........Greg