This plug goes to and supplies power for the gas furnace about 3 feet away in the crawl space. No other form of disconnect. Furnace installed in 1992. Any problems?
A cord and plug is a means of disconnect, however, that doesn’t appear to be a listed assembly. In other words, it looks “home made.”
Secondly, The furnace needs to be listed for a cord and plug. Most modern furnaces are not listed as such.
Missing coverplate on the duplex receptacle too.
Check mfg. specs for any required overlaod protection ahead of the furnace.
If there is a condensate pump and its within 6 feet of it, it should be a GFCI.
In addition to the problems already mentioned…It is hard to see in the picture, but the ground wire in the cord appears to be folded back and not terminated in the plug.
Why?
Jeff, do you have some info to support that? In my area I have yet to see an indoor gas furnace/air handler that was NOT plug and cord connected, even the new ones. At rough in we supply a 20 amp circuit to a fused receptacle for all indoor units, have never been failed yet.
Which part?
I haven’t seen a cord & plug furnace/airhandler installed in anything newer than about '96, in quite some time.
The units I see in newer construction are hardwired to a switched outlet and are not listed for cord & plug attachments.
I’m certainly not saying they don’t exist, but C&P units seem to be a thing of the past in our parts.
Romex? :mrgreen:
Cord and plug air handlers seem to be a local thing. I hear a lot of people say that is a regular thing, other places never see it. C&P water heaters are a similar thing.
I have never saw one but it still must be connected to a double throw breaker. I know payne does make some.
Thats all I see here in AZ. Plugged in…
I assume you mean a two-pole (240 volt) breaker? I have never seen a 240 volt furnace/airhandler. The condenser, on the other hand, usually requires 240 volts.
You see 240v air handlers if that is also where the heat comes from (toaster heaters) and most of the time it is A/C. I know that is a foreign concept to folks in the frozen north but here below the 27th parallel “heat” as a 3 or 4 day a year thing. Nobody has a “furnace”.
Personally…I’ll give my opinions on it for what it is worth…lol
1.) Last time I checked NM Cable was not considered a cord and putting an attachment plug onto it and allowing it to be used also as perm. wiring is well probably a problem…
2.) As someone stated…seems they have NO use for the EGC to be used at the furnace itself, they simply DID bend back the EGC within the NM Cable…and if it is gas…connected to electricity then in opinion it is " likely to become energized " since it DOES have a common connection so since this happens…guess you can’t use the exception of the EGC as the bond…BUT wait…probably no EGC’s in the whole house…yet 3 prong plug in the outlet…dont know…only the orginal poster knows that.
3.) Also we could argue dedicated equipment…BUT we have an open duplex that allows for serving as well I see…and the NEC says receptacles in crawl spaces at or below grade need to be GFCI…so if we argued the dedicated receptacle theory…in my " INT " I would make them replace the receptacle with a single receptacle…and oh yeah…add the cover also…
Just my thoughts on it…but then again I have JET LAG from flying late last night…
Even new construction the units are plugged in.
Sure…but with a proper cord and not done like in that picture…because point blank it is done wrong.
Yes, all of ours are plugged in.
I wrote this one up and probally not for the reason you might think. Hard to see in the dark pic but the greenfield lying on the solid board goes to an outlet for the furnace but comes from the second pic with the open J box was connected into the lighting circuit.
That plug has been prohibited since 1978 410-56(d) now 406.6(A) in 2005 NEC, (it must be a deadfront plug) and as other posters have noted the NM cable is not kosher either.
Forgot to add missing plate.(reason for edit.)