60 Degree C Wire??

I just bought a wall light fixture from Home Depot, and when I opened the box, printed on the flap, it said most homes built before 1985 do not have 60 degree celsius wires and to check with an electrician before installing.

Now, what the heck is 60 degree wire??? Never heard that one before.

Anyone?????

Thanks. Cloverboy.

 

The fixture most likely required 90 degree wire.
The 60 or 90 degree is the acceptable operating temperature of the conductors insulation. It gets pretty hot in the box when the condutor heats up and the light fixture heat rises into the box.

 

There's an ongoing arguement that the manufacturer has lawyers writing their installation manual. They want to guarantee that folks who have older wire do not burn up their house and sue the manufacturer. However, I also do not want to be sued, and will not contradict the manufacturer's written instructions, as the NEC often instructs to follow them as the overriding criteria. I have seen aluminum wiring in the ceiling box with a fixture rated and labeled for two 60 watt max. bulbs having two 100 watt bulbs installed by user, where the AL wire had cracked up insulation and loose connections causing additional heat which blew a breaker (luckily) before starting a fire. Choices are limited. I believe you can splice 6" of 90 degree C wire onto the ends of your existing wire using approved wire nuts, but I would wait until getting other members' feedback before proceeding as I do not know all the fine points of the letter of the rules in this very finite subject. Other alternative is to get a fixture that doesn't bear this label. It is appalling that these guys sell fixtures at a DIY home center that are intended for about 20% of the homes out there which are new and don't need new lighting anyway. The homes with 90 degree C wire are so new the wouldn't need new fixtures unless a homeowner is replacing them for aesthetic reasons.

Hope that helps.

Juice

 

Ok, I'm just a home DIY'er. Now bottom line. This is just a small light fixture we are going to put in our bathroom, and won't be on constantly. Will I start my house on fire if I put this in???? The wiring in my house is probably at least 20 years old, but still in pretty good shape.

I guess I'm still a bit confused about this. Laymens terms???

Thanks.

C-boy

 

Unfortunetly the manufacturers have made it difficult to say that it is no problem.
Many homeowners have installed fixtures with 60 degree wiring and have not caught the house on fire.
Keep the wattages at or below the max limit and you shouldn't have a problem, BUT, for the manufactuers to label the fixture the way they have, there must have been some problems at some point.
Sorry for the double talk, but you will need to make the judgement.

 

I agree with Ron. There is no bottom line and no cut-and-dry answer.

There are two choices to do it right:

• Go back and buy a different light fixture that doesn't require 90 degree wire (although you may not be able to easily find one), or
• Replace some of the wiring near the light with 90-degree wire (without making a splice in the wall).

Both of these options may be distasteful. It probably won't burn your house down if you disregard the warning, but nobody can guarantee you that. If it's any consolation, many people face just this dilemma every day.

You may just want to put the old fixture back up.

 

Let you know how the project turns out. Don't you mean let you know if my house burns down???? Just kidding!!!!!!!!

Well, funny thing here. I bought two of the same fixture, same Depot, same rack, same fixture. The other one doesn't have the warning on the box! Maybe it's an oversight by the Chinese, since they made the fixture.

Well, I'm going to put it up. It says max bulb of 100 watts, so I'll just stick in a couple 60 watters, I don't want to see myself THAT well in the mirror in the morning!!

Thanks for all the advice.

Tom