As long as the insulation is not brittle and the copper is nice and clean it should be OK. What color is it?

 

Just be very careful to check over the cable for any cuts, or nicks or anything. In those 12+ years, who knows what could have been piled on it or around it.

 

The life of Romex is supposed to be 50 years.

 

Romex don't have an experation date of any type at this time. Romex appeared in the 1960s. If installed correctly and with in the proper load rating it should last well over 100 years. The first batch of romex is still in service and shows no signs of wear. Romex will out last the home owner.

 

it seems to be ok, not brittle, coils are nice, doesnt look like it has been kinked at all. color is red, which is going to limit its usefulness, what are the regulations regarding color for 6awg on a 220 circuit?

 

All wire is supposed to be labeled on the jacket every ten feet or less. There may be a serial number and a manufacturer listed on the jacket. But it MUST at least tell you the AWG (size) and the type (THHN/THWN/TW ect.....).
If you do find a serial number and manufacturer, a call to the manufacturer will allow you to find out when the wire was made.
But as the others have already said. If its in good shape and is listed, you can use it. Red is only one of several colors that can be used for hot. Only white and grey are allowed to be used for the grounded conductor (neutral). Leaving every other color under the sun available to be used as you like, except green.

 

For wire small enough to have colored jackets, black and red are both considered "hot", so there shouldn't be any issue with using using it in a run. If you use parts of the cable in a box, I would just put some black tape or black marker all the way around one of the ends to separate them.

IIRC code says black, red, and orange are the standard hot wire colors.

 

For wire small enough to have colored jackets, black and red are both considered "hot", so there shouldn't be any issue with using using it in a run. If you use parts of the cable in a box, I would just put some black tape or black marker all the way around one of the ends to separate them.

IIRC code says black, red, and orange are the standard hot wire colors.

I wrote underline that part there is more colour than you can think the only items will reserved for netural is white or grey for ground always green or green with yellow stripes.

Any other colours what I not mention above is used for line conductors.

This part is used in North Americian side

Europe use differnt colour format ( there is too many to list all the legit combations ) but the standarized colour we are starting to use is Brown , Gray , Black is phase colour while Bleu is netural and ground is always green with yellow strip ( we can use straight green it is ok )

Merci,
Marc