On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 16:44:29 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:

wrote:
On Thu, 2 Dec 2010 14:21:02 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:

wrote:


When Dad, an electrician, had to do it he pulled the wire through
the conduit before installing it - goes through the bends and LBs a
lot easier that way. Using stranded wire involves junction boxes and
joints when transitioning from "protected by conduit" to "not
requiring protection" or "protected by existing structure"


You are quite correct in that, but it's not a big deal to hang the
boxes and tie in inside them. Using THHN offers many advantages
over pulling NM through conduit, and makes the transition matter of
little real value.

Residential electriciand don't usually have rolls of individual wire
on the truck as (at least here in Ontario) it is VERY seldom used -
and was used even less back before Dad retired.

I'd be surprised if residential electricians did not have THHN on the truck.
There are times and places for it even in residential wiring. If they
don't - Home Depot is just down the road. I'll agree that it is not a
significant percentage of residential wiring, but it's not at all an
uncommon occurrance, either. No matter - for the job at hand, any
residential electrician would not find it unreasonable to use conduit and
THHN in a given application. I don't know when your dad retired, but I've
been wiring for over 25 years, and I'm way older than that implies, and I've
seen plenty of conduit with stranded wire that pre-dates my arrival on
earth.

Pop is 82 next week. He retired when Mom died - that's 20 years ago
now.
Here in Ontario, very little conduit was/is used in residential other
than main power feeds. Not much 12 or 14 guage undividual cable, and
less yet in stranded (flexible) wire that small.

The main use of conduit was protection on concrete basement walls,
where the junction box would be inaccessible if a cieling was
installed, making an illegal concealed junction.
Running romex directly into the EMT strapped to the wall eliminated
the connection, making it fully code compliant, and legal. (even if
the cable entered the conduit through a box - as long as there were no
connections in the box)

Of course, if there was an issue with pulling the romex, the sheath
could be stripped off, producing separate conductors to pull through
the conduit. - again with no connections in the box.
Impractical for mor than 6 or 8 feet