Gondo
Member
- Location
- New Brunswick. Canada
I am from the province of New Brunswick in Canada. In our hospitals their are certain specs for outlets such as ground impedence, voltage drop, etc... One of the rules state that voltage drop must not exceed 3%. We are required to run #10 wire for anything over 60ft. We are allowed a #12 drop to outlets....try getting #10 on an outlet and jamming it in the box 
There are other rules for patient care areas such as all circuits within a patient care are must all be on the same phase. No chance of 208v or 600volts. No wires from a patient care area can share a conduit with those from another patient care area. I essense one bed must have dedicated pipe all the way to the panel and cannot share the same conduit as the bed on the other side of the wall. Dedicated conduits all the way to the panel. We must also have dedicated #12 bond wires per circuit, or a #10 bond shared between 2 circuits. Bond impedance must be less than 55 ohms I believe.
Provincial engineers working for bio med test each circuit prior to signing of on inspection. I am interested in getting a meter to test for voltage drop and impedance prior to having the engineer show up for inspections. That way we can fix problems prior to having defficiencies. This meter would also be valuable at other sites.
The meter I am looking at is the Ideal 61-165 Suretest. It would also test GFI and AFI circuits. I read through the other forum regarding this meter and most people find this meter a bit of a double edged sword and not the valuable for home inspectors. But as you can see in my particular situation a voltage drop and impedance test is required. I am just wondering if Ideal is the only meter of this type on the market. And I read posts of it being inaccurate for voltage drop tests under load, but I believe this may be jsut the meter I am looking for.
As a side note people in other forums have stated problems like loose connections, bad joints, etc... causing resistance wish reduces voltage drop. The Canadian Electrical Code stated that voltage drop must not exceed 5% and also has calculations for voltage drop depending on wire size and distance. I did not notice anybody in the forums mention anything about wire size affecting voltage drop. Increasing wire size will reduce voltage drop. As a rule of thumb in Canada for every 100ft we should increase wire size by 1 guage. #12 for 15amps, #10 for 100ft+, #8 for 200ft plus, etc... We cannot use #14 for commercial applications.
There are other rules for patient care areas such as all circuits within a patient care are must all be on the same phase. No chance of 208v or 600volts. No wires from a patient care area can share a conduit with those from another patient care area. I essense one bed must have dedicated pipe all the way to the panel and cannot share the same conduit as the bed on the other side of the wall. Dedicated conduits all the way to the panel. We must also have dedicated #12 bond wires per circuit, or a #10 bond shared between 2 circuits. Bond impedance must be less than 55 ohms I believe. Provincial engineers working for bio med test each circuit prior to signing of on inspection. I am interested in getting a meter to test for voltage drop and impedance prior to having the engineer show up for inspections. That way we can fix problems prior to having defficiencies. This meter would also be valuable at other sites.
The meter I am looking at is the Ideal 61-165 Suretest. It would also test GFI and AFI circuits. I read through the other forum regarding this meter and most people find this meter a bit of a double edged sword and not the valuable for home inspectors. But as you can see in my particular situation a voltage drop and impedance test is required. I am just wondering if Ideal is the only meter of this type on the market. And I read posts of it being inaccurate for voltage drop tests under load, but I believe this may be jsut the meter I am looking for.
As a side note people in other forums have stated problems like loose connections, bad joints, etc... causing resistance wish reduces voltage drop. The Canadian Electrical Code stated that voltage drop must not exceed 5% and also has calculations for voltage drop depending on wire size and distance. I did not notice anybody in the forums mention anything about wire size affecting voltage drop. Increasing wire size will reduce voltage drop. As a rule of thumb in Canada for every 100ft we should increase wire size by 1 guage. #12 for 15amps, #10 for 100ft+, #8 for 200ft plus, etc... We cannot use #14 for commercial applications.
