Do they make all black romex?

So I'm installing new light fixtures in an old house, and replacing the crappy old pull-chain lights and adding switches. The easiest way to do that seems like it would be to add a single piece of romex from the electrical box in the ceiling to the new box and switch in the wall. The problem with that is then you have the hot wire changing color. It's not such a big deal, since I know about it, but if anyone does any work to it in the future I'd rather avoid the confusion.

I actually ran into that in the living room where someone had already added switches, and then got confused and the next light in the series was color coded backwards. I had to use a tester to figure out which wire was which, and it sucked.

So do they make romex with two black wires? Or is there another solution that I'm over looking?

Conduit & THHN. Done.

Romex is for trailer houses. Bending pipe isn't too hard and I my opinion, as a construction worker, increases the value of the home.

The plastic conduit is damned easy to work (PVC) and available in flexible versions. Plus you can paint it afterward if you need to blend it in.

We replaced the spider's nest of Romex in our shop with conduit and it is much, much better to look at and use now.

I know here in MA using a white wire for current carrying in your situation is completely legal, and called a switch loop. Contractors do it all the time, and it won't even raise an eyebrow from an inspector. You could tape the white black if you want, but it really isn't necessary.

Chris

When I wire a switch circuit I'll use black electrical tape to flag the white wire as hot. Flagging wires is not necessary but I still do it.

They do not make Romex with 2 black wires. It would be a PITA to work with.

Wrap white wires in black electrical tape. Done.

SVreX wrote: They do not make Romex with 2 black wires. It would be a PITA to work with. Wrap white wires in black electrical tape. Done.

or red. i wrap a hot switched white with a red stripe at the switch and at the fixture.

lol @ romex is for trailers and conduit increases value of a home. average joe homeowner doesn't know head from ass when it comes to mechanicals, and the only thing that may remotely effect the value is if the home still has knob and tube. it means nothing to realtors or appraisers.

^Yep^

What he said.

Conduit does not add a single penny to the value of a home. Exposed conduit make lower it.

It took me awhile (and zapping myself real good once) to figure out how switch legs work. I prefer not to use them.

Appleseed wrote: Romex is for trailer houses. Bending pipe isn't too hard and I my opinion, as a construction worker, increases the value of the home.

The Chicago area is about the only part of the US where conduit is used for residential use - nonmetallic / Romex works just fine everywhere else.

I would wire at the fixture box black feed to black to the switch. Wire white feed to one leg of the fixture and white to the switch to the other. In the switch box you would have a black hot leg and the white neutral leg which has the fixture on it. Switch of the black is hot whites are all dead. Switch on black is hot neutral is returning to ground. Point is neutral is only live when the switch is on. Black is always assumed to be hot unless the breaker is off.

I would prefer to have the whole fixture circuit dead and switch the hot but this requires a feed through the switch. I think someone opening it up would know things are live when they see that thre is only 1 Romex to the switch box indicating controlled power originates elsewhere.

I do not have the code book in front of me so this may all be stupid and illegal.

stuart in mn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Romex is for trailer houses. Bending pipe isn't too hard and I my opinion, as a construction worker, increases the value of the home.

The Chicago area is about the only part of the US where conduit is used for residential use - nonmetallic / Romex works just fine everywhere else.

Interesting fact is that extends to inside of cube walls in office buildings. And yes it is a union thing.

nocones wrote:

stuart in mn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Romex is for trailer houses. Bending pipe isn't too hard and I my opinion, as a construction worker, increases the value of the home.

The Chicago area is about the only part of the US where conduit is used for residential use - nonmetallic / Romex works just fine everywhere else.

Interesting fact is that extends to inside of cube walls in office buildings. And yes it is a union thing.

Yeah, I had a union electrician in Chicago try to tell me it was because the city burned down in the past. Never mind that electricity had nothing to do with the fire...

SVreX wrote: ^Yep^ What he said. Conduit does not add a single penny to the value of a home. Exposed conduit make lower it.

Who said anything about exposed conduit?

What about exposed romex?

Also, which would you rather deal with when making repairs, changes?

turboswede wrote: Also, which would you rather deal with when making repairs, changes?

Romex all day long.

I apprenticed as an electrician in PA, I took electrical courses when I lived in MD. I've wired and rewired houses all along the east coast. Aside from some 220 lines in garages I've never seen conduit and couldn't begin to imagine a practical reason to use it in standard 110 household wiring.

stuart in mn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Romex is for trailer houses. Bending pipe isn't too hard and I my opinion, as a construction worker, increases the value of the home.

The Chicago area is about the only part of the US where conduit is used for residential use - nonmetallic / Romex works just fine everywhere else.

Just till you decide you want more juice in a room. Ever try to pull Romex in a finished wall? If I had 2 houses that were exactly equal, except one was piped and one was Romex, I'd go conduit a thousand times over.

Appleseed wrote: Ever try to pull Romex in a finished wall?

Yep, doesn't take long to master a fish tape. Ever try to pull more wire through a conduit that was already overloaded?

Nuttin against conduit, but really its not tragic to pull romex in a finished house. When I apprenticed that was my primary job, pulling lines through houses built in the 20s and 30s, not terrible.

just rewired a whole postwar bungalow with romex. only made 3 holes that needed patched, and we could have got away without them but we were doing other plaster repairs and painting the whole thing so what the heck, we made a few holes to make things easier.

honestly, my preferred way, just to be safe in the future, is to hot feed the switch box and send through the hot/ground/neutral through to the fixture and end it there. only because i've been zapped in the past by some extremely hokey wiring. like 6 pieces of romex on 3 different circuits all coming together jammed into a single octagon box under a light fixture with no bushings in a closet hokey.

Appleseed wrote: Just till you decide you want more juice in a room. Ever try to pull Romex in a finished wall? If I had 2 houses that were exactly equal, except one was piped and one was Romex, I'd go conduit a thousand times over.

Unless you need more juice someplace different. Harder to fish new conduit to a new location.

patgizz wrote: only because i've been zapped in the past by some extremely hokey wiring. like 6 pieces of romex on 3 different circuits all coming together jammed into a single octagon box under a light fixture with no bushings in a closet hokey.

But that's when the fun begins trying to figure out WTF they did. You haven't had any fun until you try to work on a building with knob and tube with a single continuous neutral for the whole building.

I learned real quick that the first step is to kill the power to the whole building.