22/4 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 four-conductor plenum cable for the everyday devices of a security system in those buildings: four 22 AWG stranded bare copper conductors, black, red, white, and green, 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. Four conductors means two circuits in one pull: a keypad on a four-wire panel bus, a motion detector with power and an alarm loop, a glass-break sensor with power and alarm, a door contact and a request-to-exit on the same door. 22 AWG is the gauge most sensor and keypad 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, sensor loops, and the low-speed buses most panels use, and it keeps the cable slim 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.
• Four 22 AWG stranded bare copper conductors. Two circuits in one pull, at the gauge most sensor, keypad, and contact wiring is specified at, on 7-strand conductors that bend around a ceiling and seat in a terminal block without fighting.
• Black, red, white, and green. The standard four-conductor coding, so power and signal pairs are identifiable at both ends without a meter.
• Unshielded. The right construction for contacts, sensor loops, and low-speed panel buses, 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.
• 3.63 mm outer diameter. Slim enough 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 security keypads and touchscreens on a four-wire panel bus, motion detectors and glass-break sensors that need power and an alarm loop, door contacts and request-to-exit devices on an access control door, window and door contacts daisy-chained through a plenum ceiling, intercom and entry-phone stations with power and audio, thermostat and damper control runs above a plenum ceiling, and any four-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 12 V motion detector drawing 50 mA at 500 ft loses about 0.8 V, 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 and the keypads. Most panel keypad buses are low-speed and run fine on untwisted conductors, but check the panel manufacturer's wiring guide for the maximum bus length at 22 AWG and for any bus that specifies a twisted or shielded pair. Keep the circuits 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. 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 22/4 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 sensor or keypad should be fed through conduit or from a cable rated for it.

Specifications

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