22/2 Plenum Security Alarm Cable - CMP/CL3P Rated, 7 Strand Copper, 1000ft White

In an office, school, hospital, or store, the space above the drop ceiling is usually a return-air plenum, and any low-voltage cable that runs through it without conduit has to be plenum rated. This is the two-conductor plenum cable for the small circuits of a security system in those buildings: two 22 AWG stranded bare copper conductors, black and red, under a white low-smoke PVC jacket listed CL3P under NEC Article 725 for Class 3 power-limited circuits (and by the code's substitution rules for Class 2 as well) and CMP under Article 800 for communications. It's the cable for door and window contacts, a tamper loop, a glass-break sensor, a low-current motion detector, or a thermostat pair, at the gauge most sensor wiring is specified at, and the 7-strand conductors bend around a ceiling and land in a terminal block more easily than solid wire.

It's unshielded, which is the right construction for contacts and sensor loops where there's no data signal to protect, and it keeps the cable the slimmest in the range and the price down. CL3P and CMP cover return-air plenums, drop ceilings, and raised floors, and every riser and general-purpose run below that. The cable is ETL Listed, RoHS compliant, and made in the USA, and it comes in a 1000 ft pull box with sequential footage marks on the jacket.

Features

• Plenum rated two ways. CL3P under NEC Article 725 and CMP under Article 800, so it's listed for return-air plenums, drop ceilings, and raised floors on security, control, and communications circuits, and for every riser and general-purpose run below that; the CL3P listing covers Class 2 circuits under the code's substitution rules.
• Two 22 AWG stranded bare copper conductors. The standard gauge for contacts, sensor loops, and tamper circuits, on 7-strand conductors that bend around a ceiling and seat in a terminal block without fighting.
• Black and red. The standard pair coding for polarity on a DC signal or alarm circuit.
• Unshielded. The right construction for contacts and sensor loops, and the easier one to terminate.
• 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 or Class 3 circuit calls for.
• 3.15 mm outer diameter. The slimmest cable in the range, easy to bundle by the dozen and fish through a tight ceiling.
• ETL Listed, RoHS compliant, made in the USA.
• 1000 ft pull box. Sequential footage marks on the jacket; pays out from the box without a spool stand, and the box stacks in a van.

Where It Fits

It suits door and window contacts on a security panel, tamper loops on keypads, sirens, and enclosures, glass-break sensors and low-current motion detectors, request-to-exit buttons and door position switches on an access control door, thermostat and damper control pairs above a plenum ceiling, line-level audio and intercom pairs on a quiet route, and any two-conductor low-voltage run through a plenum ceiling in an office, school, hospital, hotel, or store.

Good to Know

Keep the current light. A 22 AWG pair is about 32 ohms per 1000 ft round trip, so a contact loop or a 12 V motion detector drawing 50 mA at 500 ft loses less than a volt, which is fine, but a 12 V strike drawing 0.5 A at 200 ft loses about 3.2 V, which isn't; feed strikes, sirens, and anything else that draws real current on an 18 AWG pair and keep this cable for the sensors. Keep the circuits in their classes: Class 2 and Class 3 circuits can use 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. 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. If the ceiling space is electrically noisy, the shielded 22/2 plenum adds an overall foil shield for a reader or keypad data pair; if the ceiling isn't a plenum, a riser cable does the same job for less. Plenum compounds are stiffer than ordinary PVC, so give it a generous bend radius even though the cable is small. The jacket isn't UV stabilized or rated for wet locations or burial, so an outdoor contact or sensor should be fed through conduit or from a cable rated for it.

Specifications

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