Code Clusters is a fond look back at some of the most interesting and outlandish Code violations published in the pages of EC&M magazine over the past 15 years — the item below is the sixth in a series of 10. Questions? Comments? We’d love to hear your feedback! Post your thoughts in the box below.
One Cramped Commode
All references are based on the 1999 edition of the NEC.
Drew Simmons, P.E., President of Simmons Engineering Consulting, P.C., Staten Island, N.Y., came across this dwelling unit violation.
Sec. 240-24 (e) prohibits you from installing overcurrent protective devices, other than supplementary overcurrent protection, in bathrooms of dwelling units and guest rooms of hotels and motels. Art. 100 defines a bathroom as: “An area including a basin with one or more of the following: a toilet, a tub, or a shower.” In accordance with Sec. 240-10 (when you use supplementary overcurrent protection for lighting fixtures, appliances, and other equipment or for internal circuits and components of equipment), you can’t use supplementary overcurrent protection as a substitute for branch circuit overcurrent devices, or in place of the branch circuit protection specified in Art. 210. Supplementary overcurrent devices shall not be required to be readily accessible.
You can also see violations of the rules found in Sec. 110-26 (covering working space about electrical equipment and dedicated space above and below the equipment).
