What is the purpose of the UL listing on coax?

[miguelaqui]

I noticed that Perfect Vision makes a UL and non-UL listed cable? What would the difference be?

Would one be approved for in-wall installations and the other not?

 

[springdale_sam]

quality

 

[HCI]

The ampacity of a wire or cable is the amount of current that the wire or cable can transmit without exceeding its rated temperature. An ampacity marking on a wire or cable or a reference to a specific ampacity for a wire or cable in a UL wire or cable standard is not feasible since ampacity varies according to the actual conditions under which the cable will operate. These conditions include the ambient temperature, installation environment e.g. free-air, conduit or directly buried in the earth. The National Electrical Code provides two methods for the cable user to determine ampacity for a cable based on the installation conditions.

http://www.ul.com/wire/faq.html

 

[rjruby]

Depending on the installation, some local municipalities might require UL approved cables.

That might apply more for commercial rather than residential installations.

At my work, we had a new server cabinet installed and the local electrical inspector had a conniption that the cabinet did not have a "UL approved" label on it.

We eventually had to get documents and labels from the cabinet manufacturer verifying the cabinet was UL approved.

 

[KKlare]

No such word as "ampacity" that I ever heard of but the reference does use it.

I think commercial installations require cable with jackets that do not produce noxious fumes under high heat. Too bad that is not the only type sold. Or was I thinking of CAT-5, etc.

-Ken

 

[Mike500]

The UL listing has nothing to do with ampacity.

It does have to do with the generation of noxious fumes during a fire as well as the spread of fire.

The minimal UL rating is CATV, which means that the cable's jacket will not support combustion and is self extinguishing. The rating is also based on the allowable amount of noxious fumes generated. Some other ratings are "riser" and "plenum."

Non UL listed cable might or might not meet these requirements, but their fire safety characteristics are unknown.

For safety and liability reasons, I always use the proper UL listed cable.

 

[JohnTenn]

Huh?

I don't know where you guys get your answers? UL listed simply means that the item has been tested by the Underwriters Labatory to meet or exceed the requirements for that particular item. If it does not have the UL stamp, it just means they've never tested it or if they did it failed to meet the minimum requirements for approval by their lab.

As listed above, they do do a fire test on it, as well as several other tests, such as voltage capacity, frequency and I'm sure other tests I'm not even aware of. Most companies require UL listed items be used.