The Stuff You Don't See Every Day
Why it's important to familiarize yourself with some of the more unique applications in the NEC.
As 2024 comes to an end, we're going to close out our “Apprentice's Guide” series of training e-books with the fourth and final installment. If you're just joining us, this 2024 e-book series has highlighted some of the most popular articles from EC&M contributor, master electrician, electrical trainer/instructor, and founder/director of The Academy of Industrial Arts L.L.C., Harold De Loach. You can catch up on the three previous installments by visiting our e-book library.
For this e-book, we decided to collect training articles from Harold that focus on niche applications found in the National Electrical Code (NEC). The subjects covered may not be things you see every day, but you will more than likely run into them eventually sometime in your career. Familiarizing yourself with these topics will help you be prepared for any situation you may encounter and will help you stand out from your peers.
To kick things off, this e-book begins with “The Apprentice's Guide to Special Equipment.” This article covers the requirements of Chapter 6 in the NEC. As De Loach puts it, “The Articles found within this Chapter contain diverse, unique, or complex equipment system requirements.” Becoming familiar with the requirements found within Chapter 6 will definitely be beneficial.
Continuing from there, the rest of the articles focus on specific applications. You can find an intro guide to motors on page 5, a guide on EV charging systems on page 8, requirements for carnivals, circuses, fairs, and similar events on page 11, mobile homes and manufactured homes on page 14, and finally, NEC requirements for audio signal processing, amplification, and reproduction equipment are on page 17.
As you can see, Harold has covered a wide range of applications found within the NEC. Depending on your area of expertise, you may run into some of these applications frequently or only a handful of times throughout your career. Either way, it's important to be familiar with these niche NEC requirements so that you're ready for whatever situation may arise on the job site.
Note: These articles reference the 2017 NEC because the Philadelphia area—the jurisdiction where Harold De Loach teaches and works — still operates under that version of the Code.
