Raceways in internal installations - Learn about Raceways http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org/panel-building/raceways-in...

July 3rd, 2017 | Posted in Panel Building

Tags: conduits, raceways, the cables

Raceways are one of the most common electrical components in electrical installations as they
provide a safe route for the cables and wires.

You can find raceways in your home inside walls, in the office where you work and many other places. So lets
start by defining what raceways are.

Let your fellow electrical engineer Yasser tell you more about raceways in internal installations

According to NEC (National Electric Code) raceway is a metallic or nonmetallic enclosure (pipe or channel) which is
designed to hold cables, keep them safe from any mechanical stress and provide safe route for them. It includes metal and
non-metal conduits, surface and underfloor raceways and busways.

There are many types of raceways and we will discuss the most common types and the differences in application and
properties.

Conduits are tubes or pipes made of metal, plastic (PVC) and can be flexible or rigid as follows:

Galvanized steel rigid/ flexible conduit: used in industrial and commercial applications to protect the wires which is
expressed to mechanical stress and its very reliable in highly corrosive environment with chemicals.

Rigid/ Flexible non-metallic conduit (PVC): this type of conduits are commonly used in residential (in walls) and
also buried underground, its non-conductive, light, cheap, and flexible and the tight joints make it water resistant.

Flexible metal conduit (FMC): in case that the cables route is facing many curves and the area itself has vibrations
and movements then the flexible conduit is the best as it will keep the cables safe from mechanical disturbance but
its not recommended to be placed in corrosive environment.

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Raceways in internal installations - Learn about Raceways http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org/panel-building/raceways-in...

Figure 1: Flexible and rigid galvanized conduit

Figure 2: Flexible and rigid PVC conduit

Important notes

In metallic conduits you mustnt place a single phase cable in a conduit as the resulting magnetic field will induce
currents in the conduit which will raise its temperature causing the cable to be burnt.
Fire barriers must be placed between normal conduits and emergency ones.
Communication cables shouldnt be placed in the same conduit with power cables, to reduce interference.

Conduits are not good in places with many modifications in branch circuits, as in this case you need to do some civil
works to do any modification. Thus surface and underground raceways are a better solution if your facility are changeable
and would need to change receptacles position or number of circuits and so on.

Raceway is an enclosure in shape of channel to hold, protect and provide routing for cables.

1. Surface Raceways:
Channels made of metal or plastic (PVC) which mounted on walls and have wires running inside it, you can add
more wires to it and modify the whole wiring of your facility. Its commonly used in offices where it may need to
change a plug position as the nature of work changes.

2. Underground Raceways:
Its the same as surface raceways but it is installed under the floor and is commonly used in buildings which
contains huge servers and contains many cables.

Raceways are good for the ability of modification and troubleshooting is very easy as the cables are accessible so
maintenance also is easier.

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Raceways in internal installations - Learn about Raceways http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org/panel-building/raceways-in...

Figure 3: wall mounted raceways layout

Busway is an electrical distribution system consists of bus-bars in a protective enclosure, which is used in many
applications instead of cables. Its mainly used for high building risers and when there are many loads on the buildings
roof so in this case cables are not economical. Its also called as bus duct.

Figure 4: Underground Raceway in a server

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Raceways in internal installations - Learn about Raceways http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org/panel-building/raceways-in...

Figure 4: Underground Raceway in a server

building

Advantages

Not so affected by temperature like cables.

Very high current carrying capacity.

Higher short circuits withstand.

Easy in maintenance and troubleshooting.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage of busways is the cost; busways are really expensive so it doesnt replace cables always except as
mentioned above.

Figure 5: Bus Duct distribution system

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Raceways in internal installations - Learn about Raceways http://engineering.electrical-equipment.org/panel-building/raceways-in...

Figure 5: Bus Duct distribution system

So choosing the type of raceways to be installed in your facility is not hard to do, but its very important thus you should
take into your consideration the nature of the facility, number of cables, whether the environment is chemically polluted
or not and many other factors that may guide you to choose a specific type of raceways over another one.

Yasser.

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