Home > National Electrical Code > What's Wrong Here?

What's Wrong Here?

Dec 7, 2005 4:31 PM, By Joe Tedesco

Answer:

Hint: Knot this time — or anytime for that matter

Charles H. Schutz, owner, CHS Electric LLC, Brick, N.J., ran across this cluster of wires while renovating, repairing, and replacing some homeowner electrical work in a house where new owners were moving in. “I was following a wire from a ceiling fan in the bedroom (no box installed), and when I lifted up some insulation I found this,” Schutz said. “I could not resist but to take a picture.”

Splices are to be made in a properly sized junction box. As per 300.15, “A box shall be installed at each outlet and switch point for concealed knob-and-tube wiring.”

The NEC also states, “Fittings and connectors shall be used only with the specific wiring methods for which they are designed and listed.”

Where the wiring method is conduit, tubing, Type AC cable, Type MC cable, Type MI cable, nonmetallic-sheathed cable, or other cables, “a box or conduit body shall be installed at each conductor splice point, outlet point, switch point, junction point, termination point, or pull point, unless otherwise permitted in 300.15(A) through (M).”