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11-05-2009, 06:24 PM
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#1
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Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Ontario
Posts: 12
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Copper pipe used in place of emt?
Was at an apartment building today, we are doing the lighting, fire alarms, exits, surveilance etc and associated conduit.
Was in the electrical room rolling back the wire from the temp panel and all of the existing panels had copper tubing running into all of the different panels.
Building is from the 50s
the bends looked like they were done by hand, like the panels had dreads coming out of them. It looked really bad
Curious if this was common place in the past? What had me curious was that the main disconnect was fairly new and had the most copper pipe running into it
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11-05-2009, 06:28 PM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 666
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Breakfasteatre
Was at an apartment building today, we are doing the lighting, fire alarms, exits, surveilance etc and associated conduit.
Was in the electrical room rolling back the wire from the temp panel and all of the existing panels had copper tubing running into all of the different panels.
Building is from the 50s
the bends looked like they were done by hand, like the panels had dreads coming out of them. It looked really bad
Curious if this was common place in the past? What had me curious was that the main disconnect was fairly new and had the most copper pipe running into it
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Umm that's not copper pipe that's Pyrotenax. They loved that stuff back then haha 
Still lots of it being installed for special applications. I ran some 2 weeks ago!
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11-05-2009, 06:29 PM
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#3
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semi-electrician
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: New Jersey, out in the woods
Posts: 825
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Copper has always been more costly than steel, so I don't see any good reason to have used copper. I have seen heavy brass pipe used in old homes more than once, never knew why they used it.
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11-05-2009, 06:32 PM
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#4
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Are you sure it wasn't MI cable?
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11-05-2009, 06:35 PM
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#5
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Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Ontario
Posts: 12
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ahhh
this is exactly what it looked like;
interesting!
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11-05-2009, 06:38 PM
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#6
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Do you have a picture of the inside of the panel?
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11-05-2009, 06:42 PM
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#7
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 666
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It's a pain in the a$$ to work with, but it really is such a great product.
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11-05-2009, 06:45 PM
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#8
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnelectrician
It's a pain in the a$$ to work with, but it really is such a great product.
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Are you talking about copper or MI?
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11-05-2009, 06:46 PM
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#9
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semi-electrician
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: New Jersey, out in the woods
Posts: 825
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnelectrician
It's a pain in the a$$ to work with, but it really is such a great product.
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So what is great about it?
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11-05-2009, 06:51 PM
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#10
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 666
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The fire rating, and it is tough as hell. We use it for all emergency power feeds in some hospitals for fire pumps and very critical loads as it has a 2 hour fire rating.
Also popular for explosion proof areas.
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11-05-2009, 06:55 PM
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#11
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnelectrician
The fire rating, and it is tough as hell. We use it for all emergency power feeds in some hospitals for fire pumps and very critical loads as it has a 2 hour fire rating.
Also popular for explosion proof areas.
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They use it for some fire pumps around here, because of the 2-hour rating. Are you talking about MI cable?
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11-05-2009, 06:58 PM
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#12
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: MA
Posts: 121
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Breakfasteatre
ahhh
this is exactly what it looked like;
interesting! |
That's MI cable, not copper tubing.
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11-05-2009, 06:59 PM
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#13
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EBFD6
That's MI cable, not copper tubbing.
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I agree.
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11-05-2009, 07:28 PM
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#14
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 666
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Yep I am talking about MI cable....we call it Pyrotenax
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11-05-2009, 07:30 PM
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#15
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cdnelectrician
Yep I am talking about MI cable....we call it Pyrotenax
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Ok, we are on the same page.  I have just not ever heard it called that before. Thanks for clearing that up.
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11-05-2009, 07:30 PM
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#16
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Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Ontario
Posts: 12
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yeah, i searched up MI cable to get that photo. I had mistakenly thought it was copper tubing
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11-05-2009, 07:35 PM
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#17
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Breakfasteatre
yeah, i searched up MI cable to get that photo. I had mistakenly thought it was copper tubing
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Either way it should be a learning experience. I don't know about the others but its not every day you get to work around MI cable.
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11-05-2009, 07:38 PM
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#18
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Newnan, GA
Posts: 500
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Quote:
Originally Posted by william1978
Either way it should be a learning experience. I don't know about the others but its not every day you get to work around MI cable. |
Some of us have never worked it!
__________________
GO JACKETS!
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11-05-2009, 07:55 PM
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#19
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Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Toronto, Canada
Posts: 666
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I see a lot of it in hospitals...usually in retrofits. You see a lot of pyro being used for fire alarm devices in larger buildings and for cold leads for heat tracing cables.
You need to be pretty skilled at terminating it, if you mess up you are done for!
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11-05-2009, 07:59 PM
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#20
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Unlimited Lic.Electrician
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Charlotte N.C.
Posts: 7,760
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jbfan
Some of us have never worked it!
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Hopefully one day you will get a chance to work with it.
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