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type of house wire

getting ready to build my final house which will have my own stereo room.I'm a builder,not an electrician,but i have done my fair share of pulling wires.I don't want the house wire to be the weakest link.I will have plenty of dedicated circuits(20amp)and will be running 10 gauge wire to each.I was wondering if ufb would be a better choice than romex as the pvc coating isolates the hot from the neutral and the ground.Or would bx be better with either steel or aluminum casing?The panels will be square d qo, and I will use hospital grade leviton receptacles unless there is something else out there that is better.Looking for some input from electrical engineer types who can answer without being "too technical". thanks
tympaniguy
lacee
811 posts
 
I use Carol 10/3,stranded copper water proof cable to a dedicated 30 amp line.If all my power cords use stranded copper, then why use solid wire romex to power them?
jea48
4,412 posts
 
Stick with NM-B, Romex trade name. Plastic rough-in boxes. Forget the Leviton receptacles. Bare minimum use the Hubbell HBL8300H receptacle, non plated. Main breaker panel, Square D QO minimum. Not the Home Line brand.
jeff_jones
418 posts
 
10/3 solid copper, standard romex(BSEE U of I, fwiw). To Lacee's question, the 10 solid copper is a bit lower in resistance than 10 stranded and will give you a bit more of a solid buss back to your fuse or breaker panel, not that this is a big deal for the circuits I expect we are dealing with. It is kind of like your garden hose (pc)is fairly small diameter but that is ok because it is fairly short and pressure at the inlet side is good, if your garden hose ran all the way back to the city water tower then you would have a pressure (solid voltage and ground) problem.
honest1
586 posts
 
One thing I always wondered, what if you were to forgo outlets and power cords entirely, and just run the cable out a hole in your wall, into your component, and splice directly to transformer/ fuse/ whatever is next in line in your gear? There would be some issues with electrical codes, perhaps, but industrial equipment is hardwired sometimes. You would probably have to convuince your code isnpector that the stereo was a permanent part of the house. Or sneak it in after the inspection. Has anyone tried this?
muzcal
66 posts
 
I strongly recommend Wattgate receptacles. Big improvement over anything else. A no-brainer.
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