What is Building Wire and Cable?
Sometimes the terms wire and cables get interchanged. But to define each, a wire is a single electrical conductor while a cable is a group of wires enclosed in a sheathing.
Building wires and cables are used in the construction of almost every industrial, residential, and commercial properties worldwide. They’re most commonly used as branch circuit wirings in businesses and households. These wires allow electrical current to flow through applications that need power, in buildings or in any location.
In order for a building wire and cable to keep the electricity running, they must be installed and sized accurately. The following categories are all types identified by national standards:
- Armoured cables
- Nonmetallic sheathed cables
- Service entrance cables
- Flexible metal conduit and liquid tight flexible metal conduit
- Metal-clad cables
- Thermoplastic and thermoset insulated wires and cables
Applications of Building Wire and Cable
The applications of these types of wiring range from electrical circuit protection to residential communications. In business, it works for high-voltage transmissions included in:
- Metallic sheathed cable – supply mains and large appliances
- Unshielded twisted pair cable – signal transmission, security cameras, and data networks
- Non-metallic sheathed cable – underground or outdoor use
- Coaxial cable – carrying television signals and connecting video equipment
- Direct-buried cable – designed with a high tolerance for environmental factors
- Ribbon cable – conducting wires for computers and peripherals that run parallel to each other and only handle low voltage applications
- Underground feeder cable – outdoor lighting and in-ground applications
