18/12 Plenum Security Alarm Cable - CMP/CL3P Rated, 7 Strand Copper, 1000ft White

This is a twelve-conductor control cable for the ceiling spaces of commercial buildings: twelve 18 AWG stranded bare copper conductors, each a different color, under a white low-smoke PVC jacket that carries the plenum listings. It's rated CL3P under NEC Article 725 for Class 3 power-limited circuits (and by the code's substitution rules for Class 2 as well), CMP under Article 800 for communications, and FPLP under Article 760 for power-limited fire alarm circuits, so the one cable can serve a security panel, an access control door, an intercom, a paging amplifier, or a building controller, and run through a return-air plenum, a drop ceiling, or a raised floor without conduit. Twelve conductors in one pull is the point: a door with a strike, a request-to-exit, a door contact, and a reader; a keypad with power, data, and tamper; a control panel with a half-dozen zones home-run from one location.

The conductors are 7-strand rather than solid, which makes a cable this size easier to pull around a ceiling and easier to land in the terminal blocks of a security panel or a controller, and 18 AWG is heavy enough to carry door-strike or siren power over a long run without the voltage drop that 22 AWG would give. It's unshielded, which is the right construction for power, contacts, and the low-speed buses most panels use, and it keeps the cable a little slimmer and the price down. The cable is ETL Listed and RoHS compliant, and it comes on a 1000 ft wooden spool with sequential footage marks on the jacket.

Features

• Plenum rated three ways. CL3P under NEC Article 725, CMP under Article 800, and FPLP under Article 760, so it's listed for return-air plenums, drop ceilings, and raised floors on security, control, communications, and fire alarm circuits alike, and the CL3P listing covers Class 2 circuits under the code's substitution rules.
• Twelve 18 AWG stranded bare copper conductors. Six pairs' worth of circuits in one pull, on 7-strand conductors that bend around a ceiling and seat in a terminal block without fighting.
• Twelve distinct colors. Black, red, white, green, brown, blue, orange, yellow, purple, gray, pink, and tan, so every circuit is identifiable at both ends without a meter.
• Unshielded. The right construction for power, contacts, and low-speed panel buses, and the easier one to terminate with twelve conductors to land.
• Low-smoke PVC insulation and jacket. The low-smoke compounds a plenum listing requires, with a 0.015 in jacket wall.
• White jacket. Reads as general-purpose low-voltage in a ceiling or a tray, and stays distinct from red fire alarm and blue data cable.
• 300 V, 75 °C. The ratings a Class 2, Class 3, or power-limited fire alarm circuit calls for.
• 7.52 mm outer diameter. Sized to fit standard low-voltage fittings and connectors.
• ETL Listed, RoHS compliant.
• 1000 ft wooden spool. Sequential footage marks on the jacket; put it on a spool stand and it pays out cleanly.

Where It Fits

It suits access control doors that need a strike, a request-to-exit, a door contact, and a reader in one pull, security panel home runs carrying several zones from a keypad or a zone expander, intercom and entry-phone stations with power, audio, and door-release conductors, paging and background music amplifier wiring, HVAC and building automation controllers with multiple sensor and control inputs, elevator and door-operator control circuits, and any low-voltage run through a plenum ceiling in an office, school, hospital, hotel, or store where one cable can replace three or four.

Good to Know

Use it for the circuits it's listed for and keep them in their classes: Class 2 and Class 3 circuits can share this cable, but a Class 1 circuit can't, and the NEC requires power-limited wiring to stay separated from power conductors in raceways and boxes. When the cable carries both power and signal, say a strike on one pair and a reader's data on another, put the reader on the pairs farthest from the strike and keep the strike's run short, and check the reader or controller manufacturer's guide, since some data circuits specify a twisted or shielded pair rather than the untwisted conductors in an unshielded multi-conductor cable. If the ceiling space is electrically noisy, the shielded 18/12 adds an overall foil shield for the data and audio conductors. Run the voltage-drop calculation on any conductor that carries power: an 18 AWG pair is about 13 ohms per 1000 ft round trip, so a 12 V strike drawing 0.5 A at the far end of a 200 ft run loses about 1.3 V, and a 24 V siren drawing 1 A at 300 ft loses about 3.9 V. Stranded conductors want a ferrule or a proper fold-back before they go under a screw terminal; a stray strand is the short that takes a zone into trouble. Plenum-rated cable is for the air-handling space, not for inside the ductwork itself. Plenum compounds are stiffer than ordinary PVC, so give a cable this size a generous bend radius and plan the backbox before you pull. The jacket isn't UV stabilized or rated for wet locations or burial, so an outdoor device should be fed through conduit or from a cable rated for it.

Specifications

Usually ships in 1 - 2 business days.