Alternatives to Electrical Steel Conduits

If you are adding a tool shed, workshop, garage, you will need to install a new electrical power outlet through a conduit. Whether your cable is buried, installed above ground or installed indoors, you may need to run it through a conduit. Most safety and building codes will require that a cable run through some form of conduit. There are different types of conduits available on the market. There are the conventional steel conduits and a few alternatives to consider. The 4 tips below will give you valuable information about your choices.

 Thin Wall (EMT) Conduit

All conduits may not be suitable for use in installing outdoor cable and this type of conduit is one of them. It is used exclusively for indoor electrical wiring installation and is usually available in various diameters from ½" to 4". You might, for example, use this conduit for installing romex wiring from your circuit breaker panel to a newly installed outlet in your home.

Greenfield (Flex) Conduit

This conduit is, like EMT, designed for indoor use. Instead of the solid metal covering you will find in EMT and heavier conduit such as rigid conduit. Typically, Greenfield Conduit is used in situations where conduit is required to be bent to accommodate corners. Where heavier wall conduit can be bent with a pipe bender, flex conduit is more pliable and can be bent by hand.

The disadvantage to flex conduit is in trying to run a fish tape through it. Because of its corrugated interior surface, the inserted end of the fish tape often is unable to pass easily through this pipe. To avoid this problem you should insert a pull string in the conduit before installing the conduit. Then when you are ready to pull your cable through the conduit, just attach one end of the pull string to an end of your cable and pull on the string.

Heavy Wall Conduit

Also referred to as "rigid" conduit, this piping looks very similar to an EMT conduit and is even available in sizes the same as EMT. However, its walls are heavier and suited for outdoor use. Also different from EMT Conduit are the threads you will find on either end of this heavy wall conduit. Because this conduit is sold in fixed lengths, but needs to be extended as a single pipe with no openings, it is necessary to connect these singles lengths together. This is done by screwing these lengths into threaded connectors that connect to lengths of conduit. This creates a single pipe with openings only at each end of the pipe. For this reason, the conduit lengths are usually threaded at both ends.

Wire Channels

These channels, or "raceways," are constructed out of either plastic or metal and are to be used exclusively indoors. Most often, they are installed along the wall surface and are used to install cable after the wall has been built and finished.