[College of ACES] [University of Illinois] [Illinois CES]

Re: Re: Electrical cable system eliminates pruning

Sig Guggenmoos (ecosync@compusmart.ab.ca)
Tue, 29 Oct 1996 01:56:37 -0600

The use of Hendrix cable was discussed in one of our UAA sessions a few years ago in Halifax. The issues people raised there were exactly what Phil has mentioned 1)the coating is not a rated insulation; 2)breaks in the coating could occur and be very difficult to detect. The safety concerns raised by Phil were also mentioned ie. protective devices not kicking the line out.

The key message that I was left with was that though you had a coated cable it needed to be treated the same as bare conductor. The people who had experience with it said they still needed to maintain the same trim clearance. In other words, if you were behind on your work, it might gain you some increased reliability over bare conductor, but you need to recognize that should anything go wrong ie. somebody get hurt, the coating wouldn't buy you any leeway in a court of law.