LA County Failed Inspection

[jboy210]

That is how my main breaker box outside is passed into the backup panel, back knockout on both boxes as they exist on the boxes with a 3", I think as it is large dia. short conduit. Passed.

By exposed cable do you mean without it's jacket? My 100A cables are in wall cavity in its jacket.

Not sure what you mean by "jacket". The plastic was still surrounding the wires they routed inside the conduit. But these plastic-coated wires were always inside some sort of metal conduit, never just run inside a stud cavity behind drywall.

 

[SMAlset]

Maybe I'm just being dense here; but how exactly are they expecting you to run wiring the wiring for stuff that I'm assuming is on either side (inside and outside) of a common wall? Like do they want it so that the only thing penetrating the wall from inside to outside is conduit?

That means all the components have to use the side knock outs; but something still has to let you run wiring through the wall. I'm just trying to understand what the benefit could possibly be for this weird rule. My installers used a gutterbox to consolidate everything, but there's still a hole on the back side of the gutter box to get from the outside wall to the inside wall.

I wonder if they'll bar you from going into the back side of a gutter box too haha.

Our main panel has always been flush mounted since build time and when we had our MPU for solar it was replaced in similar fashion. It’s stucco’d in. All the wiring for loads for our house to the breakers are in wall to the inside of the panel box. The City inspector came out several times for inspection. Recall inspection for rough in of wiring and flashing before stucco and then again to approve the stucco job when it was finaled. Am I not understanding why if you can run wiring inside the garage exterior wall to main panel it can’t be then wired in wall to an inside load distribution panel in a similar fashion?

We have an interior load center with side connections going to a few pieces of equipment but am pretty sure when our whole house backup was done an interior distribution panel was placed opposite where the main panel was located and the breaker wires were feed through through a back hole to breakers in the new box. City inspected and we passed so wondering if I’m understanding things correctly as a homeowner.

 

[wwhitney]

Not sure what you mean by "jacket". The plastic was still surrounding the wires they routed inside the conduit. But these plastic-coated wires were always inside some sort of metal conduit, never just run inside a stud cavity behind drywall.

A wire is a single (solid) or multiple (stranded) metal (copper or aluminum) conductor usually surrounded by plastic insulation. A cable is a collection of wires, further contained by a metallic (e.g. MC cable) or non-metallic (e.g. NM cable) jacket. Individual wires can only be run in a raceway type wiring method (with rare exceptions), but a cable can be run directly through the building structure (with some limitations).


Cheers, Wayne

 

[jboy210]

A wire is a single (solid) or multiple (stranded) metal (copper or aluminum) conductor usually surrounded by plastic insulation. A cable is a collection of wires, further contained by a metallic (e.g. MC cable) or non-metallic (e.g. NM cable) jacket. Individual wires can only be run in a raceway type wiring method (with rare exceptions), but a cable can be run directly through the building structure (with some limitations).


Cheers, Wayne

Wayne,

Thanks again for the terminology. Based on your description, Tesla connected our powerwalls with wires run inside the conduits I showed. I assumed they did that in every installation, but perhaps not?

 

[wwhitney]

Probably. If there's any outside portion of a run, that part will look best and be better protected in conduit. [The alternative would be UF or SER cable; NM is prohibited outdoors.] Rather than install a junction box and change over to a cable type wiring method inside, it's simpler to just continue the conduit run inside to the panel.

Cheers, Wayne

 

[holeydonut]

A wire is a single (solid) or multiple (stranded) metal (copper or aluminum) conductor usually surrounded by plastic insulation. A cable is a collection of wires, further contained by a metallic (e.g. MC cable) or non-metallic (e.g. NM cable) jacket. Individual wires can only be run in a raceway type wiring method (with rare exceptions), but a cable can be run directly through the building structure (with some limitations).


Cheers, Wayne

What you say makes sense; but then why would safety be "improved" if the cable going through the structure enters the back of an electrical box versus snaking around to come in the side of the same box? Are cable clamps finicky if they're going into the back of a box versus the side? I don't understand what LA County is trying to achieve.