ELECTRICAL CONSISTENCY MEETING

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1 ELECTRICAL CONSISTENCY MEETING Date: 10/14/2015 Our Goal is FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT with us and that together we keep people and structures safe and economically viable to serve the needs of our community. We strive for: EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE! and QUALITY INSPECTIONS! OUR NEXT MEETING IS NOVEMBER FRIDAY 13 th. I. Consistency Questions 1) When do residential recessed incandescent lights in a garage need fire rated boxing?

2 There is a requirement from the Building Code (R302.6) to separate the living space from the garage. The separation from the attic space is required to be not less than 5/8 Type X sheetrock or equivalent. Also see R302.5 for penetrations. This falls to the building inspector to enforce. 2) - (a) Can an extra counter top receptacle circuit be added along with the (2) required circuits? Yes. Two is the minimum. See NEC , two or more. (b) Is the extra circuit required to be a 20amp circuit? Yes if the small appliance branch circuit requirement is being fulfilled. (210.11) (c) Can this extra circuit also feed a hard wired range hood? No. See B (2)

3 3) I recently turned down an electrical contractor for the following: A contactor mounted inside a standard pvc enclosure with controls for a kitchen hood. This box is not listed for this application, however there are pvc boxes with a back plate and control label. This wasn't that type of box. Was I wrong? If so please give a reference. The call is correct from a technical code and listing stance. To many inspectors this would be a judgment call. If installed securely I would not have a problem using the pvc box as an equivalent method. 4) - (a) When is it not required for a drawing submitted to commercial electrical plan review for examination to be sealed?

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6 (b) At what point in the in the parameters of submittal require an engineer's seal for a given scope over an architect's seal? Architects may, per their board rules seal, any work they are comfortable with. There would be no requirement for sealing over their work.

7 5) When is it necessary for a designer or engineer to seal their drawings? The licensee must seal, sign and date each sheet of original drawings issued for bidding, permitting or construction per their board rules. 6) Per 210.4b all ungrounded circuits of a multiwire circuit have to open simultaneously at the breaker. How do we handle this requirement in a patient care area, where when a breaker trips and takes out two additional circuits? Per General Care Areas. (A) Patient Bed Location. Each patient bed location shall be supplied by at least two branch circuits, one from the emergency system and one from the normal system. All branch circuits from the normal system shall originate in the same panelboard. The branch circuit serving patient bed locations shall not be part of a multi-wire branch circuit. Exception No. 1: Branch circuits serving only special purpose outlets or receptacles, such as portable X-ray outlets, shall not be required to be served from the same distribution panel or panels. Exception No. 2: Requirements of (A) shall not apply to patient bed locations in clinics, medical and dental

8 offıces, and outpatient facilities; psychiatric, substance abuse, and rehabilitation hospitals; sleeping rooms of nursing homes and limited care facilities meeting the requirements of (B)(2). Exception No. 3: A general care patient bed location served from two separate transfer switches on the emergency system shall not be required to have circuits from the normal system. In exception 2 areas, if the wiring methods come from Chapters 1-4 then you apply 210.4(B). 7) I have a 4500 sf Metal Building with a 200 amp service, 10 receptacle and 30 strip lights. The building caught fire, mostly smoke damage. The owner wants to replace the lighting with new like for like fixtures. Will this have to meet the NC Energy Code? And do I have to use an engineer and submit drawings to obtain a permit? MCCE does not require review for like for like replacements. We do need a permit for the work. 8) What is required of the plans examiner when a project appears to have Industrial Machinery (IM)?

9 The plans are to be reviewed as any other installation. The Senate Bill 490 only removed the inspections departments from requiring the third party listing and left it to the NCDOL to enforce. An IM stamp is to be used for awareness if a declaration is not filed with the plans. 9) Is it permissible to install keyless fixtures at a bathroom vanity? If it meets the code requirements, yes. 10) Can building steel that is not suitable for use as a grounding electrode (high & dry) be used as a grounding electrode conductor to the water pipe? No per A 2, to be used this way it has to be part of the required grounding electrode system as stated in C 2. 11) I was recently turned down for not color coding the ceiling wires I added for support of my conduits

10 and boxes in the ceiling. I thought this was only required in a fire rated ceiling. Has something changed? No, not since The required identification is the same, see NEC A 1 and 2. 12) Sometimes I fail my TU inspections for not having the proper paperwork on the job and sometimes not. What is required to be on site for TU inspections? The TU placard is all that is specifically required for TU. It is required to be displayed and signed. 13) I just wired a detached garage with a finished space upstairs complete with HVAC. Am I required to protect the outlets with AFCI since it is not a dwelling unit?

11 MCCE considers these accessory buildings to the dwelling and wire them as dwelling. So it would need AFCI. 14) Per NEC Section (D)(1) permits a tap to the grounding electrode conductor. If the Grounding electrode conductor to the CWP is continuous to the first service trough and a tap is made to the continuous conductor and, sized properly, and goes to the second service trough, which would comply with the afore said NEC Section. Is a split-bolt permitted for this tap connection, as it has been done in the past? In addressing the allowance of taps in D, we see the allowance of one service with multiple enclosures. We are unsure if you are saying the second trough is at the same location and service. If it is, then conceivably what you state could work provided that the multiple enclosures

12 for disconnects are contiguous and not more than six feet apart. NEC D 1; 1, 2 and 3 provides the methods for connections. While a split bolt is not specifically mentioned we have historically accepted them. They may be used on the uninsulated grounded conductor of a service or feeder and we can find no reason for the GEC to be different. If the split bolt manufacturers or NCDOI object to this usage we have not heard of it and have no record of them defaulting gives us general connection methods. 15) There are (2) troughs on the same building each one is a service. The building is a shell no up fits. The CWP electrode goes from the CWP directly to Service trough #1 continuous, there is a Tap on that grounding electrode same size 3/0 and it goes continuously to Service trough #2. This complies

13 with Section (D)(1)(3). Why was I turned down? We believe the issue now becomes C. It states that the GEC is to be installed continuous without splice or joint. There are allowances but not for the installation you describe. Your example seems to be a GEC joint. A tap would be where we are allowed to reduce conductor sizes for certain applications. As such a joint would have to be made as C 1 describes. 16) The following questions come up frequently during design and I need to be sure that I am answering them correctly: 1. If we are specifying a natural gas-fired generator with no base mounted fuel tank, then 6ft separation between the utility transformer and the generator is all that is required? 6 separation is required from any flammable oil filled transformer to any genset. Building clearances would need to be maintained as well.

14 2. If we are specifying a diesel generator with a base mounted fuel tank, then 6ft separation is still all that is required since diesel fuel is combustible but not flammable according to its flash point? 6 separation is required from any flammable oil filled transformer to any genset. Building clearances would need to be maintained as well. 3. If we have a completely detached screen wall around a generator, then 6ft separation between the transformer and screen wall is required because the screened enclosure is considered a non-habitable building? The screen wall is not considered the building wall. The clearances from the building is still required. It could be used to reduce the clearances if built to be noncombustible and withstand a blast. The working clearances around the transformer and genset would need to be maintained in relation to a screen wall.

15 17) I need to know how to interpret the below section of code for an electrical system. Is the generator called for above (from building code) a NEC 700 or 701 system? It appears to be a 701 system, except it refers to the Level 1, which I thought to be a NEC 700 system. We would see this as a 700 system. The problem seems to be one of vocabulary. Chapter 27 of the building code states that we should conform to NFPA 110 which equates this as Level 1, equaling NEC 700. In many building and fire code sections the standby and emergency are used interchangeably which leads to confusion. It has been this way since we moved in 2000 to the IBC codes.

16 18) I ran EMT through a rated stairway enclosure. This EMT was going to another room to feed lights and receptacles. The building inspector said I needed to remove this EMT, and said this couldn't run through this area. Why? NCBC prohibits this. Only what is supporting the stair enclosure is allowed. II. Discussion of rough inspections on porch columns with cables. Barnes The following pictures are what not to do or accept.

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