I will be installing a 230v 20a outlet. To run the cable, it will run down the wall of my living room (brick house). The cable will be 10/3 cable (the orange plastic wrapping). What is the proper way to protect the cable? Will the stick-on cable management system be enough, or do I need conduit?
Electrical – Enclosing cable run through living space
electricalwiring
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Couple problems I see. First is the textured ceiling. You'll never be able to open that up and patch it without being obvious, the texture is something that just isn't done these days. Second, the exterior wall should have insulation in it, so you'll end up fishing the line through insulation and the vapor barrier.
Instead, I'd suggest running the line around the floor if you can get it to a convenient wall anywhere in that room. Use some fasteners to keep the cable at the base of the wall to run it around the room:
If your wall is closed up then you don't have to worry about it. It looks like class 2 wire is rated to go into walls. Only use wire that is rated to be in the walls for uses like what you have. The only things to worry about with class 2 or class 3 wiring is:
- Class 2/3 should never be used in the same electrical box (without a low voltage divider or in the same conduit with your house wiring.
- Class 2/3 should be kept at least 10" away from house wiring. Try to run in a separate bay.
- Remember when crossing house wiring with class 2/3 it should be at 90 degrees.
If your wall is open then if you can spare the money for ENT or smurf tube (bendable, corrugated, PVC that is usually blue) then that will give your wiring more protection. It is sold in 10ft lengths or 100ft coils. You can run low-voltage class 2/3 or regular house wiring, but not at the same time. It will also give the transmission that is carried on the class 2/3 less interference when around house wiring.
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Best Answer
You can't use cable management systems. They are not listed for protecting mains wiring. At best they're listed for extension cords, but probably not.
You can use UL-listed surface conduit such as Legrand Wiremold. You can also use regular conduit if you don't mind the industrial look and chicken-choking the cable down the conduit. I recommend EMT because it's not bad to work with, and is easy to correct or modify.
Either way, you can use the conduit in one of two modes:
For a 20A receptacle and breaker, you are perfectly allowed to use 10 AWG wire. However, you don't need to... you can do it with #12 wire. At 230V, #10 is best if you are going over 150 feet.
Also, for an air conditioner (NEMA 6-20 outlet), you don't need a neutral wire. However, including a neutral wire will allow you to convert it to two 120V circuits later. If you wind up doing the entire run in actual conduit (EMT or Wiremold), you can run individual wires, omit the neutral wire for now, and add it in the future when you need it.
If you use metal non-flexible conduit, that is a valid grounding path (indoors), which means you don't need to run a ground wire. My air conditioning circuit is simply 1/2" EMT conduit with a black and red THWN-2 wire inside. That is it.
* I'm assuming you are using round 10/3 cable. If you're using flat cable, measure its widest dimension. multiply by 1.37, and you need to use conduit whose inside dimension is larger than that.