How to terminate for safety, wild Romex 12/2 or 12/3 wires in open rafters/joists in unfinished basement?

[cbelt3]

I would terminate it into a GROUNDED metal box.

Do note that some areas have wild code requirements... Chicago is particularly difficult, as I recall. EMT for even internal wiring. (May have changed over the years). They still remember that fire.,,

[Dennis S]

Michael wrote:
We had a couple of runs of 12-3 wire put into our house from the 2nd story attic down to the basement when we built. They are curled at the ends and labelled, although the label is getting very faint. We did it just in case we needed an extra circuit up there. Perhaps these are the same?

I'm pretty sure these wires were for a planned finished basement but when the head carpenter died, a lot of things were halted and never fnished.

[GGD]

If they turn out to be live, might it make sense to actually put an outlet in the box and wire them to that, so that someone in the future can more easily test it to see that it's live and figure out which breaker it's on.

[Dennis S]

GGD wrote:
If they turn out to be live, might it make sense to actually put an outlet in the box and wire them to that, so that someone in the future can more easily test it to see that it's live and figure out which breaker it's on.

That's a good idea. I can plug in the flourescent lights up there as well as some box fans and hang the fans from the joists/rafters and not have orange extension cords all over the place.