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Your
Code is Changing
Revising the Revisions
The members of 22 NFPA
technical committees met in Salt Lake City on May 26 to approve the latest
editions of the standards they oversee. Twenty of those committees accepted
their revised standards without comment. The NEC committee wasn't one of
them. After the dust settled, it reviewed 20 motions to return portions of
the Code that had been cut or overturn comments that had earlier been
accepted or rejected. Visit EC&M's
Web site for the full list.
Keep an eye on this space in the coming issues of CodeWatch for
the 2005 Code changes that we think will have the biggest effect on the
electrical industry.
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Nightmare Installations
The Floating Home
The owner of a recently
built house once called me complaining of being shocked when taking a
shower. Upon arriving at the house, I went through normal checking
procedures and found no problems. Because the rural home relied on a septic
tank, I felt the problem existed with the sewer pump. After a considerable
amount of searching, I found that when the oven was turned on, I measured
90V to 100V from the showerhead to the metal drain. Further investigation
revealed that the oven was wired with a 2-conductor, plus ground wire,
branch circuit and that the neutral of the oven was tied to the ground. The
current came from the oven indicator lamp, which was 120V. However, I found
the real problem in the breaker panel where a neutral bar and a ground bar
were located. The house service was three single conductors connected to
the hot and neutral buses. The neutral was floating from the panel case, all
grounds in the house were made up to the ground bar, and there was no
ground connection to the service. The people had lived in this house for a
year with every ground in the house tied in a loop and floating.
Dan Nunley
Port Lavaca, Texas
Fried
Fish
I got a call from the
chief of engineering at the local aquarium, who was at his wits' end
because the aquarium marine professionals had to replace dead fish about
every three weeks, but they couldn't figure out why. He had grounded
everything and even installed a titanium ground rod in the tank. I arrived
and set out to discover why it wasn't working. He had, in fact, inserted a
wire into the ground pins of the receptacles above the tank and had run
ground wires to everything. I double-checked by sticking one lead of my
meter in the water and the other to the EMT conduit body, but didn't
measure any voltage. However, my meter did register a reading from the
water to the miscellaneous work platforms. Just for grins I went to the
neutral and measured 75V, so I began tearing apart nearby receptacles and
inspecting them for proper grounding. All was fine until I got to the first
one in the conduit string, which was missing a circuit wire. I traced the
EMT conduit back to the next junction box and found that 0.75-inch PVC
conduit ran from that point back to the circuit breaker panel, and it was
jammed way past maximum fill. Not only was there no ground wire, the pipe
was plastic. Once I fixed the problem, the fish stopped dying and the tank
attendants were much happier.
Bob Schick
Kihei, Hawaii
Editor's Note: The author of "Everything Including the
Kitchen Sink" in the last issue was John Russell of Loveland, Colo.
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 NEC requirements?
Hint: This installation was found
at an industrial site.
Code
Q&A
By Mike Holt
Q. If I were to replace a two-wire receptacle in a bathroom outlet
that doesn't have a grounding means, am I required to replace it with a
GFCI receptacle?
See the answer.
Code
Quiz
By Steven Owen
Q. According to 110.14(C) of the 2002 NEC, what would the maximum
allowable ampacity be for a 250 kcmil THHN conductor that feeds a piece of
equipment protected by a 250A inverse-time circuit breaker at the point
where the conductor receives its supply?
The terminals at the
equipment aren't marked with temperature ratings. The terminals at the
circuit breaker are marked 75°C. (You'll need to determine the conductor
temperature rating).
For the purposes of
this question only, disregard the load being served. It's non-continuous
and is properly protected by the 250A circuit breaker. The conductor is
already sized properly for the load served. Our concern is the maximum
allowable ampacity of the 250 kcmil THHN conductor, as connected in this
circuit.
Note: In next issue's
question, we'll add information related to the load requirements and the
sizing of the overcurrent device and the conductor, including the
temperature limitations at terminations.
- 48 inches
- 43 inches
- 42 inches
- 36 inches
Visit EC&M's
Web site for the answer and explanation.
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Faces of the Code
Mark Wirfs
Member, Code-Making Panel 14
Sewage doesn't have much
in common with grain -- thankfully -- but throughout his more than 30 years
as an electrical engineer and consultant in the Pacific Northwest, Mark
Wirfs has found the tie that binds them. Aside from the similarities in
power delivery methods for grain storage facilities and sanitation systems
("Technology is technology and power is power," Wirfs says),
there's one more link that might not be quite so obvious: Both are
classified by the NEC as hazardous locations -- sewage systems fall under
the "gas hazardous" classifications in Art. 501 for Class 1
locations, and grain elevators are considered "dust hazardous"
Class 2 locations and covered in Art. 502 -- and Wirfs' first job, with
CH2M-Hill, exposed him to both.
In the six years he
worked in the Corvallis, Ore., and Portland, Ore., locations of the
Colorado-based firm, Wirfs spent a lot of time working on sewage systems
for municipalities, but it was a dust-control project for Continental Grain
that would have the greatest effect on his career. In fact, the grain
storage and processing industry would become one of his core client bases
when he started his own Beaverton, Ore.-based mechanical/electrical/
plumbing engineering firm, R&W Engineering, in 1978, and it also led to
his participation in the safety and health committee of the Grain Elevator
and Processing Society. And that ultimately opened the door to his work on
CMP-14 in the mid-90s. "The grain industry has been one of my best
customers, so working to improve its safety is just payback to all of those
guys who have given me all this work," he says.
For his work on the Code, Wirfs has gotten a little payback of his
own. Not only has it lent him valuable credibility with his customers in
the grain industry ("Why would they call some unknown person?" he
says), it has given him a different perspective on designing projects.
"It's quite a task to develop a code that has to cover such diverse
environments," he says. "But there's nothing better than being
there in the meetings and understanding how the Code got to be worded how
it did. When you can understand that, it makes applying the principles a
lot easier."
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Speak Out
At Least They're Thorough
The NEC committee's attention
to detail was born out by the number of motions for amendments made at the
TCR meeting two weeks ago -- 20 motions for amendments were brought before
the committee. What does this say to you about the Code-making process?
Visit EC&M's Web site to
vote, and e-mail us
your comments.
The boundaries of the electrical industry continue to expand, and
the Code has grown with it. More than 25% of you think recreational
vehicles are outside the scope of the NEC, but the rest of you were in
favor of their inclusion. Almost a fourth thought it was about time to
include standard cars and trucks as well, which ultimately begs the
questions, What about all those hybrid cars on the road today, and how will
electric cars be regulated when and if they're ever mass-produced? Visit EC&M's Web site
to read the responses we received.
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with important industry issues.
Shows and Events
EC&M Code Change Conference
It's that time again.
The release of the 2005 NEC is only months away, and to help you prepare
for all of the changes, EC&M is once again presenting its Code
Change Conferences. Moderated by Mike Holt and Fred Hartwell (Boston
conference only), two of the electrical construction industry's most
knowledgeable trainers, the two-day conferences will cover everything you
need to know about the new Code. All attendees will receive a copy of the
2005 NEC and EC&M's 2005 Code Change Book, written by Mike Holt.
Seven seminars will be held in various cities across the country. Download
the registration form to find the closest seminar, fill it out, and fax it
to (203) 929-5351.
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