Fire and smoke detector wiring

James Con

Anyone have experience with the red 18 or 14 gauge three conductor cable used for fire and smoke detectors. I would like to use the red cable to isolate them from the other circuits. I would use regular 12/3 but I have a compulsive disorder that is telling me to run the red cable lol. Any brands of cable you recomend. This stuff is hard to find locally. Thanks

Speedy Petey

Are you in Canada or the US.
I've never even seen the stuff.

WHY would you use #12 for smokes. That is a compulsive money wasting disorder.

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Sometimes I feel like if I answer any more questions it is like someone trying to climb over a fence to jump off a bridge and me giving them a boost.

CowboyAndy

I didn't think anything smaller than #14 was allowed? That being said, the building I work in used this red cable to all the smokes and fire alarm pulls on the walls. Is that just a low voltage control wire or something?

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RippySkippy

14-2 to the first one, and 14-3 to all others work great, in fact our inspectors require it. The red is the traveler.

CowboyAndy

Well, I am not sure about the OP, but I was refering to a bundle of wires in a red sheathing that I see here at work... wondering what size cable that is.


I do agree that there is no need for anything more than 14AWG for smokes.

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James Con

I am in Queens now but the house is in Pa. Your right I said 12/3 I meant 14/3. This is the stuff I found. http://www.hometech.com/security/smoke.html I seen it in 14 gauge somewhere but I just can't remember where. What do ya think. It's not to $$$$. And don't poke fun of my disorder. It's not my fault I have to use a calculator to space my christmas lights bulbs so everything is perfect. lofl. Anyone use this shnit.

Speedy Petey

Those heads and wiring are for use with a security system. Are you installing a system in the house?
They cannot be used stand-alone.

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Sometimes I feel like if I answer any more questions it is like someone trying to climb over a fence to jump off a bridge and me giving them a boost.

James Con

Forget the heads scroll down to the wire. The wire I am looking for looks like this but it comes 3 or 4 conductor, Not 2 conductor. I just can't remember where i saw it.

Speedy Petey

Like I said, that wire cannot be used for stand alone 120v smokes. It is for alarm systems.

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Sometimes I feel like if I answer any more questions it is like someone trying to climb over a fence to jump off a bridge and me giving them a boost.

LawnGuyLandSparky

What you're looking at is teflon cable, and you cannot use it on line voltage. Why would you want to? In the event of fire, in a home, by the time the approved method fails (nm cable feeding interconnected smoke and CO detectors each with battery backup) the house will be a total loss and anything left inside would be dead.

James Con

If the fire is in my basement and my basement is fireblocked beyond the minimum code requirement. And to add I could sleep through an Atom Bomb let alone a smoke alarm,Or for some reason the little 9 volters in the smokes fail due to acid leak. I would think the more the wire is resistant to heat and flame the better. But if that cable is PTFE (Teflon) I would assume it would be best due to the high heat characteristics of Teflon. But you say it aint for line Voltage. Is there any wire other than NM-PVC coated (Romex) cable I could use other than the Norm for the smokes. Maybe http://www.midsouthcable.com/FireAlarmWire.htm Check out the second one down.

CowboyAndy

James, Lawnguylandsparky pretty much nailed it. Your money might be beter spent on other things instead of teflon wire! You would probably be the only guy to have it running his smokes (in a non fire alarm setup) in a few hundred mile radius.

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LawnGuyLandSparky

"If unlikely event A and then B and then C occurs then I would need it" is an excuse, not a reason. Have you considered what smoke detectors, their housings and circuit boards are made from? They'll fail long before NM cable would.

If you insist on teflon, you'll have to actually install a fire alarm system. Not residential grade interconnected smoke alarms.

James Con

Gotcha. Points well taken. I seen the red wire and it said for use with fire alarms, so I thought it was something new to use, Like when they switched over to yellow 12 ga. NM And orange 10 ga. NM years ago. Well thanks for setting it straight guys.. Thanks

Pudge565

petey are you saying that this wire can't hanlde the 120 volts or that it is just not compatable with the standalone smokes?