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The designations "National Electrical Code” and “NEC” refer to the National Electrical Code®, which is a registered trademark of the National Fire Protection Association.

Top 2005 Code Changes
Art. 100 -- Definition of Qualified Person
By Mike Holt
An FPN was added to the definition of "qualified person" to give examples of the type of safety training required for a person to be considered qualified.

What the Code says: Qualified Person. A person who has the skill and knowledge related to the construction and operation of the electrical equipment and its installation. This person must have received safety training on the hazards involved with electrical systems.
FPN: Refer to NFPA 70E, Electrical Safety Requirements for Employee Workplaces, for electrical safety training requirements. (Modified Code wording is underlined.)

Behind the change. Examples of this safety training include, but aren't limited to, training in the use of special precautionary techniques, of personal protective equipment, of insulating and shielding materials, and of using insulated tools and test equipment that are used when working on or near exposed conductors or circuit parts that are or can become energized.

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Nightmare Installations
Oh Brother
We were called out to inspect an electrical service panel for a realtor. Normally we find a few minor violations and write an estimate and eventually make the repairs. This time I wish I had had my camera. The homeowner's brother had replaced all the conduit in the basement with nonmetallic sheathed cable. Of course, he ran it just like conduit -- across the bottom of all the joists -- and it was run on angles to the floor joists and fastened in place with bent nails. Not only that, the connector at every metal junction box was missing, and the bare ground wire was cut off. The brother had also replaced the panel. The original panel, we deduced, was a 100A fuse box. He installed a 200A breaker box. He did not disturb the meter or break the seal, so he had to have worked the service entrance wires hot. In fact, after the original connector was removed, he punched out the biggest knockout on the top of the panel and slid the new breaker panel up and over the conduit and connected the 100A service wires to the main 200A breaker. The bare neutral was too short, so it was lengthened with a wire nut. The conduits that used to go into the old service panel were disconnected and the wires were run into the closest knockout without a connector, thus defeating the grounding system. You can rest assured that the breakers were also the wrong size for the branch circuits. Needless to say, we were able to convince the homeowner that her electric service needed help. She gladly paid us to make the required necessary repairs.
Tim Shea
Racine, Wis.

Send your 200-word story to us and it may appear in a future issue of CodeWatch. Authors of stories chosen for publication will receive $25.

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Code Challenge

What's Wrong Here?
By Joe Tedesco
How does this installation violate the NEC?

Hint: Although the view in this picture is looking up, you should be thinking more along the lines of the ground the photographer was standing on when he took this picture.

Code Q&A
By Mike Holt
Q. I have a panel that contains a circuit breaker for air-conditioning equipment. If the circuit breaker in the panel is within sight of the equipment, am I required to install another disconnect near the air-conditioning equipment?
See the answer.

Code Quiz
By Steven Owen
According to the 2005 NEC, in which of the following scenarios would GFCI protection be required on 20A branch circuits in the kitchen area of a small college cafeteria?

On all 15A and 20A receptacles in the entire kitchen area, if it has a sink and a portable microwave oven that is occasionally moved from one location to another

Only on the countertop areas of the kitchen

On all 15A and 20A receptacles in the entire kitchen area, if it has a sink and a built-in (permanently installed) microwave oven

This isn't required by any edition of the NEC

Visit EC&M's Web site for the answer and explanation.

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Faces of the Code
Andy Juhasz
Member, Code-Making Panel 12
Andy Juhasz has a thing for cars, but not in the way you might guess. He looks for good acceleration, a smooth ride, and accurate stops, but turning radius and gas mileage never cross his mind. He's deeply concerned about passenger safety, but he's never thought about seat belts or air bags. And even though the word "shaft" comes up often in conversations with him, it doesn't have anything to do with cams or the drive train. When Andy Juhasz talks about cars, he's talking about elevators.

For most people, the elevator is just a convenient alternative to stairs, but for Juhasz, who began working in the industry with servo design and motion control more than three decades ago and is now the manager of codes and standards for KONE, it's a much more complicated means of transportation. "When people think of an elevator, they just think, 'Big deal, it goes up and down,'" he says. "Well, the fact is that it's a rather large moving mass that you're trying to move hundreds of feet in one direction and the other and precisely position at each floor. So from an overall control system [standpoint], it's rather challenging."

That challenge is half of the reason he's stayed in the industry as long as he has. The other is his devotion to keeping elevators safe. Exposure to electrical hazards can happen anywhere from the pushbuttons in the hallway that call the car to the panel in the car itself, so he's spent the majority of his career working on ASME A17.1, the Elevator and Escalator Safety Code. He's now the chairman of the A17 Electrical Committee. His relationship with the NEC started in 1994 when he participated in the rewrite of Art. 620 as a member of a joint task group between CMP-12 and A17 Electrical Committee members, which eventually led to a spot as an alternate on Panel 12 during the 2002 NEC cycle. He became a principal for the 2005 cycle.

The general public will probably never notice the work Juhasz has done in his career, but it's enough for him to know that as the elevator's technology has improved over the last three decades, so has its safety measures. "From a reliability standpoint and a safety standpoint, the equipment is more reliable and safer than it was 30 years ago," he says.

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Speak Out
Lights Out
Art. 527 (now Art. 590) states that holiday lighting installations are only permitted for 90 days. But if the typical homeowner doesn't read the Code -- and let's face it, he doesn't -- how would he know? Should that neighbor of yours who's had his lights up since last year be expected to abide by that rule? Visit www.ecmweb.com to tell us. And while you're at it, e-mail us your funniest -- or scariest -- holiday lighting mistakes, and we may publish them in the next issue of CodeWatch on Dec. 22.

Four out of five CodeWatch readers agree: The 2005 NEC will require some getting used to. More than 80% of you expect changes in the new Code to affect your work at least a little in the coming years. For the lucky 19% of you who don't anticipate having to make even the slightest adjustment, consider yourself lucky.

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Shows and Events
New Year, New Conferences
Missed out on EC&M's Code Change Conferences? You may be in luck. A second series of conferences is in the works for the new year. Stay tuned to CodeWatch for updates.

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