Enclosed porch on side of house for washer/dryer. Only light is controlled in kitchen, not at new entry door, so installing 3-way switches. Am bringing power in on new grounded circuit.(house built in 60s so no ground) My question is will it be safe to just put wire nuts on old wiring to original switch and just leave alone for now. Will replace this wiring probably 6 months down the road when I redo kitchen. But for now would like to just cap of the ends and leave since that wire comes in from kitchen light along with other wiring that fans out to receptacles and den etc...
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Yes, it's safe and code compliant to cap the wires in the box with wire nuts. Just fold them to the back of the box so they're out of the way.
Most people wouldn't worry about this in am million years, but wire nuts have a rating for the combinations of wires that you can use with the wire nut, and some wire nuts are rated for single wires. The little gray ones like Ideal 71B are rated for a single #14 and the Ideal black 59B are rated for a single #12. I find the little blue wire nuts hold a single #14 or #12 solid or stranded fine and keep them around just for that purpose, but they are not rated for that. Call me a renegade.
Some people cap wires with wire nuts without stripping the wire, but they hold best if you strip the wire so the wire nut bits the metal not the insulation.
batsplatsterson
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In my area, that wouldn't meet building code. The correct thing to do would be to mount a box, put the lose wire in the box, cap off the ends inside it, and label it. With that said, I've done exactly what you described with a project. It'll be fine.
Jeff Wheeler
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