“Romex” is a brand name for a type of non-metallic (NM) insulated wire. It’s pretty much the standard for 95% of the wire that’s run in a typical house in North America, and kind of looks like a big flat extension cable. There’s an external plastic sheath that holds all the wires together (that’s the non-metallic part, as opposed to say, running it in metal conduit), and then each wire inside is also insulated, aside from the ground conductor. When you see something like 12/2 or 10/3, that’s the wire gauge (12 or 10 gauge) and then the number of current carrying conductors on the inside (2 or 3, plus a ground).
Romex is that whitish electrical cable you sometimes see in unfinished basements, goes from the breaker box to junction boxes. White cable, nailed to the studs with that white plastic tab with a nail on each side, goes to a blue or metal box with outlets in it.
The copper in that is pretty thick so nowadays a lot of places lock up the wires so people don’t try to make off with a bunch of it
I’m not a professional electrician, but I believe the color of the cable is standardized, too. The white cable you refer to is 14-gauge, which is standard for a 15-amp household outlet. 12-gauge is yellow, and 10-gauge is orange.
What’s Romex? I have no idea what this conversation is about but I’d love to know lol
“Romex” is a brand name for a type of non-metallic (NM) insulated wire. It’s pretty much the standard for 95% of the wire that’s run in a typical house in North America, and kind of looks like a big flat extension cable. There’s an external plastic sheath that holds all the wires together (that’s the non-metallic part, as opposed to say, running it in metal conduit), and then each wire inside is also insulated, aside from the ground conductor. When you see something like 12/2 or 10/3, that’s the wire gauge (12 or 10 gauge) and then the number of current carrying conductors on the inside (2 or 3, plus a ground).
Romex is that whitish electrical cable you sometimes see in unfinished basements, goes from the breaker box to junction boxes. White cable, nailed to the studs with that white plastic tab with a nail on each side, goes to a blue or metal box with outlets in it.
The copper in that is pretty thick so nowadays a lot of places lock up the wires so people don’t try to make off with a bunch of it
I’m not a professional electrician, but I believe the color of the cable is standardized, too. The white cable you refer to is 14-gauge, which is standard for a 15-amp household outlet. 12-gauge is yellow, and 10-gauge is orange.
I’m happy to be corrected if I’m wrong, though.