Quote:
My mind is having trouble reading your posting, because what you actually have are more commonly known as a two-conductor (plus ground) and a three-conductor (plus ground).


The reason for this, by the way, is that electical codes seldom consider the bare ground wires as "conductors". They're just present for safety, and under normal circumstances don't conduct anything. And they usually don't count for "box fill", whereas real insulated conductors do count for "box fill".

The term "box fill" refers to electrical code limits on how many conductors are allowed to enter/exit a given-size electrical box, based on the shape and cubic-inch volume of the box. The bigger the box, the higher the "box fill" limit.

A typical deep wall outlet box has a fill count maximum of 6, which allows for a circuit to enter on 2-wires (plus bare ground), exit on another 2-wire cable, and have a third 2-wire cable venture off to a switch and back again. Total of 6 "conductors" in the box, plus the three bare ground wires.

Fill count gets more complicated than that, as it also can take into account how many plastic wire connectors are present, plus other details. EDIT: I actually fibbed above: the box fill for that example was really 8, because two plastic wire connectors are needed to hook it all together.

Cheers


Edited by mlord (18/03/2007 20:50)