Electrical – Minimum Distance from Receptacle Terminal to Conduit Connector

conduitelectricalreceptacle

Is there a minimum distance required from a receptacle terminal to a conduit connector? Surely this is defined in the NEC somewhere right? enter image description here

Best Answer

It's in NEC 110.12. Mechanical Execution of Work. "Electrical equipment shall be installed in a neat and workmanlike manner." (which does not mean nipping back all the wires in your service panel).

First, they make non-metallic caps for the ends of conduit fittings. Google "rigid conduit insulated bushing". They are nominally to prevent wire gouging, but they will solve this nicely.

enter image description here

Second, run those screws down all the way, then wrap the receptacle with electrical tape. No reason to leave screws exposed.

Speaking of neat, you have a metal junction box where the receptacle yoke is landing hard flush on the box. Get rid of the little paper squares on the mounting screws, and you'll have a valid grounding path and won't need a ground wire to the receptacle.

You don't need a ground wire in the pipe, but if you have one, it needs to go to the ground screw on the metal junction box. Going to the receptacle is not enough because the ground would be disconnected if the receptacle is removed.

If this is outdoors or if the pipe is subject to physical damage, there's wisdom in running ground wires also.