# Individual Large Conductors With No Conduit in Basements?



## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

Hack work, no permit


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## chicken steve (Mar 22, 2011)

wrong, bad, nfg, no biscuit! ~CS~


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## btharmy (Jan 17, 2009)

Are you talking 3 individual conductors, not in a jacket? Or, a cable assembly like SE cable?


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

A house with an unfinished basement in California? :001_huh:


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

MI cable would be legal. It would come in individual conductors that size. And it would have to be bundled with the other phase conductors. 

I would bet everything that it is not type MI cable.


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## Jerome208 (May 10, 2013)

3 conductors not in a jacket. My grandparents had conduit coming through the basement wall horizontally with a bushing at the end and then the wires were just run along side the floor joist. I don't know if it was conduit on the other side all the way to the meter pedestal or if it was USE direct buried.

The place I was at more recently, I did not investigate as I was in a hurry working on something else but the 3 conductors go into the top of the main panel. I have to return in a few days so I will look further when I go back.

Was there some loophole that allowed USE to be run like this?


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## Jerome208 (May 10, 2013)

I returned to the house, talked to the owner, he has been in it since new in 2000, county inspected, never touched, and in 2000 the county inspectors were not playing softball.

Could it be because the type USE is a "cable" even though it has no jacket and thus allowed to be run where "not subject to physical damage"?


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## Going_Commando (Oct 1, 2011)

Jerome208 said:


> I returned to the house, talked to the owner, he has been in it since new in 2000, county inspected, never touched, and in 2000 the county inspectors were not playing softball.
> 
> Could it be because the type USE is a "cable" even though it has no jacket and thus allowed to be run where "not subject to physical damage"?


That is straight up hackadocious.


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## cabletie (Feb 12, 2011)

​ *II. Installation*​*338.10 Uses Permitted
** (B) Underground Service-Entrance Cable.​* Underground​
service-entrance cable (USE) shall not be used under the following​ conditions or in the following locations:​ (1) For interior wiring​ (2) For aboveground installations except where USE cable​ emerges from the ground and is terminated in an enclosure​ at an outdoor location and the cable is protected in​ accordance with 300.5(D)​ (3) As aerial cable unless it is a multiconductor cable identified​ for use aboveground and installed as messengersupported​ wiring in accordance with 225.10 and Part II​of Article 396

The commentary says the same thing.

_ Type USE or USE-2​_ — Indicates cable for underground​
installation, including burial directly in the earth. Cable in​ sizes 4/0 AWG and smaller and having all conductors insulated​ is suitable for all of the underground uses for which​ Type UF cable is permitted by the​ _Code_. Types USE and​
USE-2 are not suitable for use in premises or above ground​ except to terminate at the service equipment or metering​ equipment. Both the insulation and the outer covering, when​ used on single and multiconductor Types USE and USE-2,​are suitable for use where exposed to sun.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

Again, I'd like to see this house in California that has a basement. :laughing:


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

MTW said:


> Again, I'd like to see this house in California that has a basement. :laughing:


Had a former live in who's mother lived in a house in Marin with a basement. We slept down there when visiting. I don't think they are all that uncommon in the area.


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## MTW (Aug 28, 2013)

macmikeman said:


> Had a former live in who's mother lived in a house in Marin with a basement. We slept down there when visiting. I don't think they are all that uncommon in the area.


Makes sense, I guess they don't build the same style of house that they do in southern California (cookie cutter tract houses on slabs, 12 feet apart.)


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