UNIT 3.2 — CONDUIT BENDING

Conduit bending math: offsets and multipliers

CERT 3 · Commercial & Industrial Systems · ~11 min

Community content — not verified by a licensed electrician. Lessons and questions here are written for study practice and pinned to NEC 2023. Code editions and local amendments vary by jurisdiction. Always confirm against your adopted code book and your licensing board's published exam outline before test day.

An offset is two equal bends that jog a conduit around an obstruction. The distance between bend marks = obstruction depth × the offset multiplier for the chosen angle. The multiplier is the cosecant of the angle — but exams expect the memorized table, not trigonometry.

The workhorse values: 10° → 6.0, 22.5° → 2.6, 30° → 2.0, 45° → 1.4, 60° → 1.2. Example: a 4-inch obstruction with 30° bends → 4 × 2.0 = 8 inches between marks.

Every offset also consumes length ('shrink'): the conduit effectively shortens, roughly ¼ inch per inch of offset at 30°. Shallower angles pull easier (less wire friction); steeper angles save space. Total bends between pull points may not exceed 360°.

Exam focus: multiplier-table problems (distance between marks), shrink adjustments to measured lengths, and the 360° rule.

30° multiplier

2.0

45° multiplier

1.4

Max bends per pull

360°

Knowledge check

Quiz — 3 questions

1. Distance between bends for a 6-inch offset using 30° bends:

2. The maximum total bends allowed between pull points is:

3. Choosing a shallower offset angle (e.g., 10° instead of 45°) mainly:

← Syllabus Next: Transformers: ratios, kVA, and connections →