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Nightmare Installations
Uninterruptible Power Supply
While replacing all the receptacles throughout an old home that I recently purchased, I found an interesting wiring connection. In the process of identifying the circuits serving the receptacles, I noticed that it wasn't possible to turn the power off to a receptacle located in the living room. For a while there I thought the branch wires might be tied into the main service circuit breaker. After confirming that wasn't the case, I traced the branch circuit to a junction box in the basement, where I discovered the problem. Circuit 1 and circuit 5 were spliced together and simultaneously serving the same receptacle. When circuit 1 was turned off, circuit 5 was on and maintaining power to the receptacle, and vice versa. I bet the person who made this connection would have gotten a good lesson in "phasing" had they spliced circuit 1 (phase A) and circuit 3 (phase B).
Juan Castaneda
Chicago

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How's This for Rent Control?
A friend of mine who owns and lives in an old three-flat asked me if I would check why for the last few months his electrical bill had more than doubled over the past few months. I was puzzled when upon inspection of their apartment and daily electricity usage I found their nominal wattage consumption just didn't add up to what was on the bill. As it turns out, the problem was in the circuit breaker boxes, which were open and looked like overflowing spaghetti bowls. A renter had turned off his main breaker and was running his apartment through two 20A circuit breakers and two camouflaged 12 AWG wires connected to my friend's box. It took me an hour to find and correct the problem, but it took my friend several months of litigation to evict the renter.
Hugo Mika
Chicago

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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Applications Corner
Code Basics
By Mike Holt
The scope of Art. 285 applies to devices that are "listed" as transient voltage surge suppressors (TVSSs). It does not apply to devices that incorporate a TVSS, such as a cord-and-plug-connected TVSS unit, a receptacle, or an appliance that has integral TVSS protection.

TVSS devices must be marked with their short-circuit current rating and cannot be installed where the available fault current is in excess of that rating. TVSS devices installed on the load side of service equipment are susceptible to high fault currents if located near service equipment. A hazard would be present if the device rating was less than the available fault current.

Can you connect a TVSS device anywhere on the premises wiring system? No. Per 285.21(A)(1), the TVSS shall be connected on the load side of a service disconnect overcurrent device. Per 285.21(A)(2), the TVSS must be connected on the load side of the first overcurrent device at the building or structure. And per 285.21(A)(3), the TVSS shall be connected on the load side of the first overcurrent protective device in a separately derived system.

Code Calculations
By Mike Holt
Art. 340 covers the use, installation, and construction specifications of service-entrance cable (Types SE and USE). Type SE cable has a flame-retardant, moisture-resistant covering. Type USE cable, identified for underground use, has a moisture-resistant covering, but is not required to have a flame-retardant covering.

When using Type SE service-entrance cable for interior branch circuits and feeders, you must comply with the installation requirements of Parts I and II for NM cable, but not the 60°C conductor ampacity limitations noted in 334.80. The Code does not allow you to use Type USE cable for interior installations because it is not listed for this application.

Visit EC&M's Web site to view a comparison of Type NM and Type SE conductor sizes required to adequately serve a heater and motor load.

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Code Challenge

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

Hint: Yes, this is energized.

Code Q&A
By Mike Holt
Q. On a 1,600A 277/480V service, is the neutral conductor from the utility transformer to the service disconnect considered a current carrying conductor if the only line-to-neutral loads is a 200A lighting panel that supplies nonlinear loads?
See the answer.

Code Quiz
By Steven Owen
According to 312.6 of the 2002 NEC, what's the minimum wire bending space required in a 200A rated panelboard, at the main circuit breaker terminals, where the main circuit breaker is fed with 4/0 AWG THHN/THWN insulated conductors? The 4/0 AWG conductors are installed in parallel -- two per phase. The conductors enter the enclosure on the wall directly opposite the circuit breaker lugs, i.e., through the top of the enclosure, in-line with the circuit breaker terminals.

5 inches

6 inches

7 inches

7.5 inches

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

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Faces of the Code
Art Schlueter Jr.
Member, Code-Making Panel 12
For nearly 30 years, Art Schlueter Jr. has built and installed handmade pipe organs in churches across the country, but for a few years in the late '80s he was in violation of state licensing laws. Unbeknownst to him, the state of Georgia, where his A.E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Co. is located, instituted a licensing requirement in the mid-'80s for anyone who installed low-voltage equipment. He didn't find out until an inspector failed the wiring in his company's new production facility because he hooked up a doorbell without the license. "It was the single most bizarre situation in my life," Schlueter says.

That kind of sudden head butt from reality isn't the best way to be introduced to electrical requirements, but Schlueter used it as a springboard for informing his fellow pipe organ makers about low-voltage licensing requirements and improving the NEC as it pertained to his industry. Upon reading Art. 650 for the first time in the late '80s, he found that its requirements were almost 50 years out-of-date. "Back then, the industry was still using cotton-covered, paraffin-coated wire," he says. "It was just incredibly obsolete."

With a decade of standards-writing experience as the associate executive director of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the support of two national pipe organ builders associations, he drafted a completely revised Art. 650 and eventually succeeded in getting it ratified. The cloth-covered wires were gone, and modern considerations like multiple overcurrent devices were included. "I've been working on the Code for several cycles now, and I've never seen them bend the rules like that to completely rewrite an entire Article," Schlueter says. "But luckily they made a concession for our industry."

He was also rewarded for his efforts with a seat on CMP-16 (and eventually CMP-12 when Article assignments were shifted), but it came with a warning: "They told me, 'You need to be totally up-to-speed all the time, and you need to be able to answer to the industry,'" he says, which is something he has enjoyed doing. In fact, his role as the pipe organ industry's spokesperson on CMP-12 has made him a go-to guy for his contemporaries. "I get calls from all over the United States, not just from the pipe organ builders themselves, but a lot from inspectors," he says. "It's been an honor."

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Speak Out
License to Wire
Art Schlueter safely installed the low-voltage wiring associated with pipe organs for a couple years without a license before finding out he needed one. How should state and local agencies regulate this type of low-voltage installer? Visit EC&M's Web site to tell us.

We were going to assure Code-Making Panel members that all those long hours spent perfecting the NEC haven't been in vain. We were going to tell you that the vast majority of CodeWatch readers believe it's never acceptable to violate the Code, even in those instances when the installation may be just as safe. But more than 200 votes (two-thirds of the tally to that point) came in at the last minute, severely swaying the results. We'll just consider that a testament to the power of the Internet.

Shows and Events
EC&M Code Conferences
Haven't signed up for one of EC&M's 2005 Code Change Conferences yet? There's still time. Download the registration form, and pick the closest seminar. Fill it out and fax it to (203) 929-5351. For those of you who waited too long to take advantage of early bird registration, don't worry -- that doesn't mean you can't still sign up at the regular rate. Registration for the first conference in Atlanta Oct. 27-28 is open through Aug. 27. Moderated by Mike Holt and Fred Hartwell (Boston conference only), the two-day conferences will cover everything you need to know about the 2005 Code. All attendees will receive a copy of the 2005 NEC and EC&M's 2005 Code Change Book, written by Mike Holt.

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