multicable to breaker box

[lostwax]

Greetings!

I have a 12awg soca multicable with a 6 circuit dropbox with pigtails on one end and bare end wires on the other.

I need to get 20amp circuits up to my grid VERY CHEAPLY...

Can I have my electrician wire this directly into my circuit breaker box (100amp, 3 phase to the box but no camlocks, no breakers in box) and change my pigtails to female edison plugs?

thanks!

 

[techieman33]

Greetings!

I have a 12awg soca multicable with a 6 circuit dropbox with pigtails on one end and bare end wires on the other.

I need to get 20amp circuits up to my grid VERY CHEAPLY...

Can I have my electrician wire this directly into my circuit breaker box (100amp, 3 phase to the box but no camlocks, no breakers in box) and change my pigtails to female edison plugs?

thanks!

No, you would need a 20 amp breaker for each circuit.

 

[lostwax]

No, you would need a 20 amp breaker for each circuit.

exactly - I'd have them put in the 20 amp breakers - but is it ok for the multiwire go go directly into the breaker box -
my understanding was that one conventionally goes into a gridiron junction box, then conduit to the breaker box -
I'd like to skip the conduit etc., and go directly into the breaker box...
is this ok?

thanks again

 

[MNicolai]

A box without any breakers that has 100/3Ø sounds much more like a disconnect switch than a circuit breaker panelboard.

 

[MNicolai]

You would go flexible cable into a large junction box with some strain relief and compression fitting. Then the cable splices into the THHN in the junction box and routes via conduit back to a panelboard. It is ill-advised and likely a code violation to go flexible cable directly into a panelboard, and does not give you a good means for splicing the wire out to THHN.

The right way to do this is to have an electrician route conduit and wire up to the grid and spill into the flexible cable via a junction box on your grid. Conduit is cheap. Wire in that amount is cheap. Most expensive part is the electrician driving to your theater and physically getting on a high enough ladder, lift, or catwalk to route the conduit.

The next best way to do this is to get an electrician in to install (6) 20A circuits at ground level with 5-15 (aka "Edison") receptacles. Then you add 5-15 connectors to one or both ends of your multicable and drop that down from the grid to plug into your receptacles at ground level. You're looking at maybe two hours of labor for the electrician depending on drive time, and not a whole in materials. Figure $400-$750 just because it's a big junction box needed to fit all of the splices from the cable and because you need the circuit breakers populated into the panelboard (assuming that is in fact a panelboard and not a disconnect switch).

*That is a very loose estimate made not knowing where you're located, what electricians go for in your area hourly, and your particular building and its constraints/obstacles.

 

[lostwax]

sorry - it has 3 40amp breakers - it was a (very) old hook up for dimmers -
the existing pigtails are 6/4 SO (no ground!?!) ending in these very large yellow 60amp600volt hubblelock connectors:
http://www.grainger.com/product/HUBBELLOCK-Locking-Connector-3D080

this is for a small installation and I am trying to replace the breakers in my box with 20 breakers
and then go direct to the dropbox from the breaker box via multicable

So my actual question is simply can the multicable go into the breaker box directly or is this against code etc...

(If someone is so inclined I'd love to know how the hubbellock 3 phase plugs work with only 4 wires, but I digress...)

thanks again

 

[danTt]

A 3phase/4 wire connector is usually 3 hots and a ground, and provides exclusively 208.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk

 

[lostwax]

A 3phase/4 wire connector is usually 3 hots and a ground, and provides exclusively 208.

ok - so no neutral - so no way to connect this to a conventional (contemporary) 3 phase dimmer rack with 5 camlocks...
right?

(though selling those hubbellocks on ebay could help fund my electrician! they are insanely expensive!)

thanks for the help everyone

 

[lostwax]

ok - one other thought - if the electrician wires to a SOCA jack next to the panel, and my multiplex has a plug on the end - then I could just plug into that - no?

thanks again...

 

[techieman33]

ok - one other thought - if the electrician wires to a SOCA jack next to the panel, and my multiplex has a plug on the end - then I could just plug into that - no?

thanks again...

Yes, assuming the proper breakers get added. I would rather have 6 5-15 outlets added though for the extra versatility of having that power easily available right there at the panel. Then you would buy/build a 5-15 break in for the soca. And then it's just an extension cord as far as code is concerned, and would be temporary use only. If you need power up there permanently your going to have to run cable in conduit. And I honestly thing you'll find that going the conduit route won't be that much more cost to the project. The cost of the 2 soca plugs and paying the electrician to solder them is probably going to be close to the materials cost of running new cable to the grid.

 

[STEVETERRY]

sorry - it has 3 40amp breakers - it was a (very) old hook up for dimmers -
the existing pigtails are 6/4 SO (no ground!?!) ending in these very large yellow 60amp600volt hubblelock connectors:
http://www.grainger.com/product/HUBBELLOCK-Locking-Connector-3D080

this is for a small installation and I am trying to replace the breakers in my box with 20 breakers
and then go direct to the dropbox from the breaker box via multicable

So my actual question is simply can the multicable go into the breaker box directly or is this against code etc...

(If someone is so inclined I'd love to know how the hubbellock 3 phase plugs work with only 4 wires, but I digress...)

thanks again

From the 2014 NEC on Flexible Cords and Cables:

400.8 Uses Not Permitted. Unless specifically permitted
in 400.7, flexible cords and cables shall not be used for the
following:
(1) As a substitute for the fixed wiring of a structure

<snip>


Leaving aside all the egregious violations of overcurrent protection discussed in this thread, wiring the cable directly into the breaker box will violate this section of the Code.
If you add a female outlet fed from the breaker panel in conduit, with appropriate overcurrent protection on every circuit, you would likely be OK.

ST

 

[Jay Ashworth]

@MNicolai: he couldn't actually have an electrician install 5-15 receptacles, could he? If he had single circuits going through single connectors to 20 amp breakers, it would have to be a 5-20 or something else that was 20 amp.

 

[MNicolai]

@MNicolai: he couldn't actually have an electrician install 5-15 receptacles, could he? If he had single circuits going through single connectors to 20 amp breakers, it would have to be a 5-20 or something else that was 20 amp.

Provided the receptacles are duplexes and that 6 duplexes are provided, one per circuit, it is allowable. A duplex counts as two receptacles so long as they aren't broken apart, the top connector fed from one circuit and the bottom from another.

NFPA 70, 2014 Edition
210.21(B)(1) A single receptacle installed on an individual branch circuit shall have an ampere rating not less than branch circuit.

210.21(B)(3) Where connected to a branch circuit supplying two or receptacles or outlets, receptacle ratings shall conform to values listed in table 210.21(B)(3)

Table 210.21(B)(3)
Circuit Rating (A)........Receptacle Rating (A)
15..............................Not over 15
20..............................15 or 20

EDIT: Above section is disqualified by verbage in 520.9, as ST points out below.

 

[STEVETERRY]

Provided the receptacles are duplexes and that 6 duplexes are provided, one per circuit, it is allowable. A duplex counts as two receptacles so long as they aren't broken apart, the top connector fed from one circuit and the bottom from another.

Provided the receptacles are duplexes and that 6 duplexes are provided, one per circuit, it is allowable. A duplex counts as two receptacles so long as they aren't broken apart, the top connector fed from one circuit and the bottom from another.

Actually, if we're in a theatre, 520.9 covers it all:

520.9 Branch Circuits. A branch circuit of any size supplying one or more receptacles shall be permitted to supply stage set lighting. The voltage rating
of the receptacles shall be not less than the circuit voltage. Receptacle ampere ratings and
branch-circuit conductor ampacity shall be not less than the branch-circuit overcurrent device
ampere rating. Table 210.21(B)(2) shall not apply.

ST

 

[kendal69]

Greetings!

I have a 12awg soca multicable with a 6 circuit dropbox with pigtails on one end and bare end wires on the other.

I need to get 20amp circuits up to my grid VERY CHEAPLY...

Can I have my electrician wire this directly into my circuit breaker box (100amp, 3 phase to the box but no camlocks, no breakers in box) and change my pigtails to female edison plugs?

thanks!

Do cam from the main box into " lunch box size" breakout box Take a look at this