18/4 Solid Copper Fire Alarm Cable - FPLP Plenum Rated, Red, 1000ft

In an office, school, hospital, or store, the space above the drop ceiling is usually a return-air plenum, and any fire alarm cable that runs through it without conduit has to be plenum rated. This is the four-conductor fire alarm cable for those buildings in the light 18 AWG gauge: four solid bare copper conductors, insulated black, red, brown, and blue in low-smoke PVC, under a red low-smoke PVC jacket listed FPLP under NEC Article 760 for power-limited fire alarm circuits in plenums, drop ceilings, and raised floors. Four conductors means two circuits in one pull: the power pair and the alarm pair for four-wire smoke detectors, an initiating circuit and a control pair to the same device box, or a relay module's control and monitor pairs, on the 18 AWG gauge most panel manufacturers specify for initiating and control circuits. It's a standard-grade, unshielded cable, the everyday construction for those circuits on a quiet route; for an addressable panel's signaling line circuit, use a data-grade cable.

FPLP is the top of the fire alarm cable hierarchy: it can go anywhere FPLR or FPL can, plus the air-handling spaces they can't. The red jacket is the fire alarm identification that inspectors and future technicians expect to see. The cable is UL Listed, RoHS compliant, and made in the USA, and it comes on a 1000 ft wooden spool with sequential footage marks on the jacket.

Features

• FPLP plenum rated. Listed under NEC Article 760 for power-limited fire alarm circuits in return-air plenums, drop ceilings, and raised floors without conduit, and for every riser and general-purpose run below that.
• Four 18 AWG solid bare copper conductors. Two circuits in one cable, on the standard gauge for initiating and control circuits, for four-wire detectors, combined initiating and control runs, and relay modules.
• Low-smoke PVC insulation, black, red, brown, and blue. Four distinct colors so each pair keeps its polarity and identity from the panel to the device, with a 0.008 in wall.
• Red low-smoke PVC jacket. Low smoke for the plenum listing, in the standard fire alarm color, so the cable is recognizable in a ceiling space or a junction box years after it's installed.
• Standard grade, unshielded. The everyday construction for initiating, control, and notification circuits, and the easier one to terminate; for an addressable signaling line circuit, use a data-grade cable.
• 300 V, 75 °C. The ratings a power-limited fire alarm circuit calls for.
• 4.22 mm outer diameter. A 0.015 in jacket wall, sized to fit standard fire alarm fittings and connectors.
• UL Listed, RoHS compliant, made in the USA. Also carries the Canadian FT6 plenum flame rating.
• 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 four-wire smoke and heat detector circuits that need a separate power pair alongside the alarm pair, device runs that carry both an initiating circuit and a control or power pair to the same location, relay and control modules with a control pair and a monitor pair, duct detector and damper control wiring above a plenum ceiling, runs through the plenum ceiling of an office, hotel, hospital, school, or retail floor, short or lightly loaded notification appliance circuits, and any power-limited fire alarm run where two 18 AWG pairs in one pull save a second cable.

Good to Know

Don't put both legs of a Class A loop in the same cable. NFPA 72 requires the outgoing and return conductors of a Class A circuit to be routed separately so that one fault can't take out both, and a four-conductor cable running out and back defeats that; use it for two different circuits, or for the power and alarm pairs of a four-wire device. Run the voltage-drop calculation before you put 18 AWG on a notification circuit or a detector power pair: an 18 AWG pair is about 13 ohms per 1000 ft round trip, so a circuit drawing 1 A at the far end of a 300 ft run loses about 3.9 V, which is right at the limit most 24 V panels allow; for a loaded notification circuit, step up to the 16/4 or 14/4. On an initiating or control circuit the current is tiny and the gauge is fine for long runs. This is a standard-grade cable, so for an addressable panel's signaling line circuit use a data-grade cable, which is built to the tolerances those loops specify. Plenum-rated cable is for the air-handling space, not for inside the ductwork itself, which the NEC doesn't allow for any fire alarm cable. If the ceiling isn't a plenum, a riser-rated 18/4 does the same job for less. If the route shares a ceiling space with VFDs, large motors, or broadcast equipment, the shielded plenum 18/4 adds a foil shield and drain wire and is data grade as well. The cable is listed for fire alarm circuits under Article 760, and the AHJ has the final say on using it for anything else, so if it's going on a security, intercom, or control circuit, check first. Keep fire alarm cable separate from power conductors in raceways and boxes, as the code requires for power-limited circuits. Plenum compounds are stiffer than ordinary PVC and four solid conductors under one jacket stiffen it further, so give it a generous bend radius, use device terminals rated for it, and size the backboxes accordingly. 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

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