The electrical system in most homes and businesses is wired using Romex wire. Romex is a brand name that has become the standard name for sheathed, insulated wire. Romex cable, (pronounced rome-ecks), contains two or more insulated wires in a flexible plastic sheath that can be run through walls, under floors, through attics and so on.
Flexible sheathed cable is easier to run through holes in studs than metallic sheathed cable, it is also cheaper. Romex wire is labeled as NM, which means non-metallic. That refers tot he sheathing being not being metal, to differentiate it from metallic (BX or AC) sheathed cable. Another designation UF indicates the cable is rated for direct burial in the ground (although local codes may not permit that use.
The rating of 12/3 refers to the gauge of the wire and how many wires are in the cable. In this case, the wire gauge is twelve (lower numbers mean larger wires) and the three indicates that there are three wires in addition to a non insulated ground wire. So in the case of 14/2, there are two fourteen gauge wires plus a ground wire.
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