Best prices on Romex?

mnp13

I need to purchase a good deal of Romex for my attic, does anyone have a source for good prices?

In my last house we wired the entire thing with 12, but can I get away with 14 for lights? it's the upstairs, so the power draw is alarm clocks, lights, probably a TV at some point. The upstairs bathroom currently only has a light, though eventually will have a fan and a couple of plugs... lol

and /2 or /3?

I'm not going to do anything stupid, but if I can not over-spend on this project I will be a very happy person.

Speedy Petey

When you say a "good deal" I think you mean a roll or two. To you a good deal of wire is a days worth to some of us.
For that a home center is your best bet. Don't waste your time "shopping" two rolls of romex.

You can probably do #14 for everything except the bathroom receptacle. Just keep the number of things on a circuit to a reasonable number.

/2 or /3 depends on what you are doing. It's not a question of choice.

Jim Port

Your best price may come from a local supplier after you figure in shipping costs.

Most of the time you will only need xx-2 cable. The exception will be three way switching or a dead end switch loop or smoke alarms.

If your circuits are only 15 amps you can use #14. This is fine for most lighting circuits. some circuits are required to be 20 amps like the laundry and bathroom receptacles.

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Answers based on the National Electrical Code. Local amendments may apply. Check with your local building officials.

mnp13

well... you definitely have a good point there!! I probably need a total of 500 feet or so, what you use in a day... but will take me a few weeks!


light switches and plugs, nothing very heavy load.

There is one three way switch, it runs the hall lights, and honestly I don't know what I'm going to do with it because there are no straight runs to it. It may need to wait until I gut the bathroom because the lower light is under it. Our smoke alarms were hard wired in by the alarm company, and powered out of the basement, not the second floor, with new wires.

The panel has 5 15 amp breakers, there are two wires coming out of the bottom, which I believe then loop around and go up through the wall to power the upstairs. Oddly enough, one breaker is labeled "Dining room," and I'm not sure what room that would be referring to on the second floor. And a bizaare little setup next to it, that I'll post a picture of in a couple minutes.

I'll check what running to that breaker box in a few...

Speedy Petey

The load has nothing to do with whether you use 2 or 3 wire.

mnp13

Any idea what that is?

Attached Thumbnails

 

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Michelle

Fixing the re-muddling one room at a time...

ddawg16

Regarding your pic....those are transformers.....one is most likely 24 Vac for your door bell....the other transformer would be 24Vac for you HVAC.

As for wire...just buy it from HD or Lowes.....500'? An electrical supply house would laugh at you.....when you get to 5000', then you 'might' start to get good pricing.

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mnp13

ok, 5 15 amp breakers upstairs. The box in the basement has two 40's that run the upstairs box, two 60's that run the downstairs, and two 30's that have nothing connected to them so they are shut off.

Ok, I'm all ears.

ddawg16

You will typically use 14/3 (3 wire) for lights when you have a 3-way light. Otherwise, 12/2 for wall recept, 14/2 for lighting......unless you need to wire up a 3-way switch.

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mnp13

No doorbell in the house. It had crank doorbells until the people who lived here before us removed the strikers.

You could be right on the HVAC though, not that there were any controllers anywhere near that when we moved in. The current heating is hot water baseboard, but before that was forced air, and before that was gravity air, (someday I'll post pictures of the basement destruction from the air systems) and before that was stoves in the rooms that vented through the four inch cast iron pipes in the walls. Who knows...

Anyway, I was going to yank them out and use the junction boxes, but was curious what they were. I'll add them to my pile of misc stuff in the basement...

Thanks!

mnp13

YAY! I don't need any 3 right now then... and I don't think I've ever used 3 wire before, though we put in a number of three way switches in my last house... evidently it could have been easier! lol

jimmy21

i would say you only need 1 roll of 12-2 and 1 roll of 14-2. Then if you need any 14-3 buy it by the foot. The is not what i call "bulk"........... at all. Bulk is when you buy it by the pallet.

You could get away with doing the whole thing on 14 if you put them on 15 amp. Bedrooms typically don't have much load......... typically

raleighthings

Let's put that 32" flat screen up there with a TiVo, DVD player, cable box, etc... plus a few lamps, some wall warts for your iphones and ipads, and then fire up that really neat powerful vacuum and see if the 15 A blows or not. Oh, use a sound system in the bed room? Ever want to plug in a heater?

Go with 20A in the bedrooms and life will be easier.

jimmy21

I said typically........ but even with a vacume and all your electronics your not going to trip a breaker. If you turned a heater on too, ya probably, but you can't fix stupid

Speedy Petey

You had me until you threw in the heater. Even a 20A can trip a breaker will that PLUS a space heater.
People who hate 20A circuit always like to use the space heater theory, like 20A circuits are immune to tripping from space heaters. You must not do much commercial work. Space heaters are the bane of any office setting.

Also, all those electronics you mentioned are NOT big draws at all. Wall warts??? They are not even worth mentioning as far as load goes. And a TIVO or cable box? Even look at the actual ratings of those things?