Canadian Electrical/Fire Codes - in wall cables

[Hep]

I recently had an Ontario building inspector complete an inspection of my basement renovations, and he had no issues with the speaker wires behind the walls. He also didn't comment on the other wires, including HDMI, although that may be because it is all running through electrical conduit.

[DiverSpear]

The CEC is real close to the NEC. I'm pretty sure they have to be rated CL2 or equivalent. I have some Canadian electrician friends I'll check with them. Keep in mind instructs and inspectors do not always know all aspects of the code. I recently ran into an inspector here who didn't know any about the LV portion of the code until I opened the code book and showed him.

[gearyt]

Originally Posted by Hep

although that may be because it is all running through electrical conduit.

makes it code....

sorry for all the confusing answers. codes are inter-weaved into a "building code" which ususally references other codes instead of spelling it out

[DiverSpear]

My Canadian electrician friend got back to me with CEC codes and here they are as follows:

Here the classification is as follows: FT1 and FT4 rated cables can be used in combustible construction, FT6 rated cables are for plenum rated ceilings in buildings of non-combustible construction. That "zip cord" type speaker cable is not rated for concealed wiring unless it has a CSA or ULc marking, it must also say FT1 or FT4 on the jacket. Same goes for any kind of low voltage wiring method that will be concealed.

This is straight out of the CEC. Basically the same as the NEC just different terminology. So what it means is the wires do need to CL2 rated or Canadian equivalent.