Is this weatherhead placement OK?

[brian winkle]

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey

Sorry, it seemed that came out wrong.
I was pointing out that even though it is an obvious violation it was still hooked up.

It is truly amazing some of the things I see that were "just inspected" by an AHJ.

That's because in many areas the AHJ is only a general building inspector and may or may not be up to speed on all of the trades. Just this month I saw a county inspector pass a subpanel that had grounds and neutrals mixed, no panel bond, 3 neutrals crammed into each hole, and no ID on the neutral. They (HO) had ran a 4 wire feed but didn't understand how to make it up at the sub. All he said was to clean out the drywall dust at the bottom of the can.

If we pull an electrical permit, we get an electrical inspector, who will know his stuff (and then some).
He will go strictly by the NEC.

But for a new house at final, we will get a general inspector who will go by the IRC.

[Peter W. Bennett]

Code - - - Schmode
Who cares, it's unsafe.

[William J. Decker]

Originally Posted by Speedy Petey

Sorry, it seemed that came out wrong.
I was pointing out that even though it is an obvious violation it was still hooked up.

It is truly amazing some of the things I see that were "just inspected" by an AHJ.

Pete;

Realize, when you cite "code" most people (especially the general public) asume you are talking about their own particular AHJ code.

In Illinois, any municipality over 10K population has the ability to set their own, local, code. I have seen villages, right next to each other, that have totally different 'codes' and some even contradict each other (like right across the street, fer gosh sakes!).

Chicago is the 900 lb gorrila, around here. To be a licensed electrician in Chicago and many of its surrounding suburbs, you HAVE to be union educated and a member of the union (IBEW) to even be considered to sit for the exam.
Thus, we have requirements like these:

• All wiring (including low voltage, except 12V or less, DC, in EMT.
• No "Mini-Breakers" (a device that fits in one panel lug, but has two seperate breakers).
• AC whips of 3' or less only.
• No requirement for distribution panels (like in condos) to have a floated neutral. (as in bonding of ground and neutral only at the SE).
• No requirement for bonding jumpers over water meters (most houses do not have water meters.

I have seen old 60 amp drops with 60 amp meter boxes (and SECS) with 200 amp panels. The codie says its OK.

My point is that the general public believes that "code" (i.e. local code) inspections are good enough. They don't care about the NEC or changing safety standards, and neither do most sparkies around here.

BTW: In my example, the builder and his electrician and the local AHJ said this was OK. Why? Because they said that Commonwealth Edison hooked it up, so it must be "Code".

How do I explain this to my client is someone gets zapped?

Hope my calling it out as wrong gets me off the hook with the jury.

Hope this clarifies.

[Greg Fretwell]

For your purposes, If you can stand, stoop or lean over anywhere and touch a service conductor it is a hazard. Let the sparky who evaluates it figure out where the violations are.

[William J. Decker]

They just say that there are no violations. After all, "It passed the code inspection."

[Speedy Petey]

Bill, I was under the impression that this was hashed out over two months ago. I see now that you still did not get my point, however I worded it.

I clearly stated that now matter how wrong it was someone passed it. Even in the totalitarian environment that is Illinois.
I NEVER said it was right, or safe.
In fact I agreed with Michael in that his PRIOR code quotation was the same as the NEC. See posts 4 & 5.
In post #10 I provided an NEC graphic depicting that it is wrong.
At the same time...someone passed it.

You then, and even now, interpreted my posts as me saying since it was passed it was OK. This is NOT even close to the case.
I'll state again. It is clearly a code violation, AND wrong.

Originally Posted by wdecker

Chicago is the 900 lb gorrila, around here. To be a licensed electrician in Chicago and many of its surrounding suburbs, you HAVE to be union educated and a member of the union (IBEW) to even be considered to sit for the exam.
Thus, we have requirements like these:

• All wiring (including low voltage, except 12V or less, DC, in EMT.
• No "Mini-Breakers" (a device that fits in one panel lug, but has two seperate breakers).
• AC whips of 3' or less only.
• No requirement for distribution panels (like in condos) to have a floated neutral. (as in bonding of ground and neutral only at the SE).
• No requirement for bonding jumpers over water meters (most houses do not have water meters.

All reasons I would NEVER EVER work or live in such a totalitarian environment. It seems Illinois has forgotten what country this is. Next time you are in the local AHJ office remind them that this is the United States of America.