Hint: The inside of this service equipment appears a little speckled, wouldn't you agree?

Code Q&A
By Mike Holt
Q. I've been looking online, but I can't seem to find a consistent answer on whether a television antenna placed in the attic needs to be grounded. Does it?
See the answer.

Code Quiz
By Steven Owen
What is/are the appropriate electrode(s) required to ground a 112.5kVA transformer installed as a separately derived system? The transformer is located 500 feet from the service equipment in a separate electrical room. Metallic water piping runs throughout the structure. The framework of the building is structural steel, and there's neither a ground ring nor access to rebar installed in the footings. The building's electrical system is grounded in accordance with all the applicable rules of Art. 250 of the 2005 NEC.

1. A grounding electrode conductor connection to the metal water piping system in the area of the separately derived system is all that's required.
2. A grounding electrode conductor connection to the structural steel in the area of the separately derived system is all that's required.
3. Either one of the electrodes in A or B by itself is acceptable.
4. Either one of the electrodes in A or B is acceptable as the grounding electrode only if the other electrode is also connected (bonded) to the same point of the separately derived system where the grounding electrode conductor connection of the system is also made.

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

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Tom Harman
Member, Code-Making Panel 2
As Don Corleone, Marlon Brando made offers others couldn't refuse. But when Tom Harman visited him five years ago to discuss the merits of installing a tankless water heater at his Hollywood estate, it was Brando who for once felt compelled to accept. Harman, who was moonlighting as a consultant for Microtherm, Inc., humbly dismisses talking business with the Godfather as his 15 minutes of fame, but it may have actually been fate that a member of the electrical industry who's done it his way spent time with an actor known for his independence.

Unlike nearly every other Code-making panel member, Harman speaks only for himself when he votes on changes to the NEC. More than 25 years ago when he joined Code-Making Panel 2, it wasn't uncommon for panel members to represent themselves instead of an organization or association. Today, he's one of only three remaining independents -- or "special experts," as they're now known -- with voting status. "I've just always done it on my own," Harman says.

Without anyone to sponsor him, he had only his own accomplishments to help him win a seat at the table. But in 1979 his career as a professor at the University of Houston - Clear Lake had only recently begun, and he was nearly 10 years from becoming the chair of the computer engineering department. He could have sold himself on the strength of his doctorate in electrical engineering from Rice University in Houston and the master electrician's license he earned in 1973, but it was his skill with the word processor that made him most attractive. "I'd just published my book, Guide to the National Electrical Code, when I ran into a number of people from the panel," he says. "And [then chairman] Earl Roberts said to me, 'Tom, we need people like you.' I've been on it ever since."

After nine cycles on CMP-2, Harman has traveled across the United States and even as far as South Korea to speak about the Code. But it was that house call in Hollywood that gave him the story he most enjoys telling. "It was interesting [to spend time with Marlon]," he says. "He was very open about his life and his experiences."

Speak Out
Lost in the Crowd
With every association with even the faintest ties to the electrical industry clamoring to put at least one member on a Code-making panel, "special experts" like Tom Harman are a dying breed. Are the independent voices getting squeezed out? Visit EC&M's Web site to tell us what you think.

We only asked one question in the last issue of CodeWatch, but your responses told us two things. Not only do the vast majority of you (82%) expect inspectors to have more than five years of electrical wiring experience, but the unusually high vote turnout suggests you feel pretty strongly about it.