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Cake day: November 12th, 2023

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  • Depending on your local building codes and whether they adopt the NEC for electrical safety, bonding some types of fiber is not an option, it’s required. For reference, see NEC § 770.100. Notice the use of the words “shall be bonded or grounded”.

    The advice being given by some posters is to go with fiber like it is some way to get around bonding/grounding requirements. Thats not entirely true. Depending on the type of fiber, it must be bonded as fiber often has metallic tracer wire and armor that is part of its construction.

    Because OP mentioned that it’s an underground run between a barn and a house, I would personally use armored cable. Rodents will eat through conduit and cable. I’ve replaced and repaired miles of feet of cable due to rodents - even armored cable in conduit. Rodents are persistent.


  • If this is your recommendation, it would help the OP if you specified a good quality non-conductive fiber optic cable. There are conductive fiber optics cables in this world, and it is required that they be bonded. Thats why NEC §770.100 was written.

    Personally, because I’ve dealt with a lot of rodent damage in my career, I’d use an armored (conductive) cable for an underground run as rodents will chew through conduit. Armored fiber optics cable is designed for exactly these type of situations, and must be bonded.


  • You know that depending on the optical cable being used, grounding is still very much required, right? If this were my project and I was running underground cable to a barn, I’d use armored fiber cable to prevent rodent damage. Even if the cable is in conduit. Gophers and moles are the worst. I’ve had them chew through armored and loose tube fiber that was in conduit - which is why I will always go with the harder to destroy stuff.

    There is a lot of conductive fiber optics cable, with armored being just one type. Hence the reason NEC § 770.100 requires conductive fiber optics cable be bonded. We know it’s not the fiber that is the problem - it’s the metal that is part of the cable’s construction that will conduct electricity.