Field-Installed Skeleton Tubing

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smallfish

Senior Member
Location
Detroit
I popped open a ceiling tile and standing on the top step of a ten foot ladder, I was unable to climb over an above-ceiling partition in order to inspect a neon power supply in a soffit of a small eatery in an enclosed mall. I could see the open enclosures with wired transformers inside but couldn't stretch close enough to read any rating. I was looking at what the sign installer had just reused from the previous store's sign circuitry. FMC was stretched and unsupported, enclosure covers were missing, no egc was pulled with circuit conductors.
First things first.
NEC600.21 (A) requires accessability (admitting close approach) to the power supplies.The partition could be lowered perhaps and with an extention ladder gain access through the ceiling.
Since this is not the original installation, is this new installation then required to be accessible? Who would make the changes to the building to make it so? Thanks
 

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
It is accessible, but you just don't have the right tools to get to it yet. I have had to rent a personnel lift already that will fit through a 2x4 ceiling grid opening to get to bar joists 10 or 15 feet above the dropped ceiling. Plus, just because you couldn't get to the power supply doesn't mean much, I think. Somebody obviously got to it at some point to wire it up. These soffet areas in strip malls normally have an access door every so often to enter the soffet area and walk around inside.

awp-05.jpg
 
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John Arendt

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Field assembled neon signage/borders are the biggest PITA for NEC compliance. They usually 'appear' on Monday mornings, as the 'neon guy' seems to work straight thru from Fri 4PM, to 8AM Monday.

Code compliance is sometning that seems to be non-existant with the 'neon guys'. Permit???? Inspection???? Ha. Ha!

Violation letters and fines force compliance....and red stickers upon inspections.

Transformer access? Saw a few sitting on the 't' bar grid with a pull chain string thru the tile; pull to hard....get hit in the head!

Enclosure for xfr? na, it's $$$. GTO sleeving?? Electrode insulators?? Proper standoff's??
 
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