How well do you know the Code? Think you can spot violations the original installer either ignored or couldn’t identify? Here’s your chance to moonlight as an electrical inspector and second-guess someone else’s work from the safety of your living room or office. Can you identify the Code violation(s) in this photo? Note: Submitted comments must include specific references from the 2011 NEC.
Hint: It's Mind Bottling
‘Tell Them What They’ve Won...’
Using the 2011 NEC, correctly identify the Code violation(s) in this month’s photo — in 200 words or less — and you could win something to put in your toolbox. E-mail your response, including your name and mailing address, to neccodeguy@hotmail.com, and Russ will select three winners (excluding manufacturers and prior winners) at random from the correct submissions. Note that submissions without an address will not be eligible to win. Winners will receive a fluorescent lighting tester from Milwaukee Tool, valued at $199. The product allows complete lamp, ballast, and pin testing, before or after install, without dismantling fixtures.
(*Please allow six to eight weeks for delivery of tools.)
Our winners this month include: Vincent Hueber, P.E., facility engineer, Syracuse Housing Authority, Syracuse, N.Y.; Perry R. Kruse, owner, Perry Kruse Electric, Northfield, Minn.; and Jayson Sorum, electrician, Grand Forks Public School District, Grand Forks, N.D. They all correctly identified the following violations associated with this damaged conduit.
It looks like this installer may have been absent from class on pipe bending day, or perhaps he took the class, “How to Bend Pipe with Hammers 101.” In any case, the EMT has been damaged, and its internal diameter has been effectively reduced. This is clearly a violation of 358.24, as proper pipe bending techniques were not used on this EMT. The installation is also not very “neat and workmanlike,” as required by 110.12.
Damaging the EMT in this manner can cause problems with the conductors as they get pulled through the pipe. Imagine yourself trying to pull a bundle of conductors through the kinks on that bend. Some of the kinks in this pipe are so bad that they could even prevent the wires from being pulled in at all.
Many different types of pipe benders are available for electricians to use. Hammers, however, don’t make for a good pipe bender!