Plenum Rated Shielded Fire Alarm Cable, 14/2 Solid FPLP (Data) - 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 shielded fire alarm cable for those buildings in the heavier 14 AWG gauge: two solid bare copper conductors, insulated black and red in low-smoke PVC, wrapped in an aluminum-Mylar foil shield with a drain wire, 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. It's a data-grade cable, with insulation built to the tighter electrical tolerances that addressable panels specify for their signaling line circuits, so it's approved for SLC loops as well as notification and initiating circuits. 14 AWG has about 60% of the loop resistance of 16 AWG, the step up for a notification appliance circuit or voice evacuation speaker run that's a little too long or a little too loaded for 16 AWG but doesn't need the bulk of 12, and the foil shield and drain wire are for the ceiling spaces where the plain unshielded cable would pick up noise: lighting ballasts, VFDs, HVAC motors, and the power and lighting circuits that share the plenum with the fire alarm wiring.

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 ETL 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.
• 14 AWG solid bare copper conductors. About 60% of the loop resistance of 16 AWG, for notification and speaker circuits that have outgrown 16 without the stiffness of 12.
• Aluminum-Mylar foil shield with drain wire. 100% coverage against induced noise from ballasts, VFDs, and HVAC equipment sharing the ceiling space, with a drain wire for a clean bond at the panel.
• Data grade. Insulation held to the electrical tolerances addressable panels call for on a signaling line circuit.
• Low-smoke PVC insulation, black and red. Color-coded conductors for polarity on notification and speaker circuits.
• Red low-smoke PVC jacket. Low smoke for the plenum listing, in the standard fire alarm color, with a heavier 0.018 in wall.
• 300 V, 75 °C. The ratings a power-limited fire alarm circuit calls for.
• 6.27 mm outer diameter. Sized to fit standard fire alarm fittings and connectors.
• ETL Listed, RoHS compliant, made in the USA.
• 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 notification appliance circuits with a moderate-to-high count of horns and strobes, voice evacuation speaker circuits from the amplifier to the last speaker on a floor, runs through the plenum ceiling of an office, hotel, hospital, school, or retail floor, circuits that share a ceiling space with lighting ballasts, VFDs, and HVAC equipment, signaling line circuits where the panel manufacturer calls for a shielded pair, and any power-limited fire alarm run through an air-handling space where 16 AWG comes up short on voltage drop.

Good to Know

Run the voltage-drop calculation before you pick a gauge. A 14 AWG pair is about 5 ohms per 1000 ft round trip, so a notification circuit drawing 1.5 A at the far end of a 300 ft run loses about 2.3 V, comfortably inside what most 24 V panels allow, and a 2 A load at 400 ft loses about 4 V; past that, step up to 12 AWG. A speaker circuit is figured on impedance and wattage rather than current, using the amplifier manufacturer's tables. Ground the shield's drain wire at the panel end only and tape it back at the device end; a shield grounded at both ends becomes a loop that picks up the noise it was meant to reject. The data-grade insulation is built for SLC loops, but the foil shield still adds capacitance, which some addressable panels count against loop length, so check the panel's SLC wiring guide for its shielded-cable limit. 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, the shielded riser 14/2 does the same job for less. 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. If the ceiling is quiet, an unshielded 14 AWG plenum cable does the same job for less and terminates faster. Plenum compounds are stiffer than ordinary PVC and 14 AWG solid is stiff to begin with, so give it a generous bend radius and use device terminals rated for it. 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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