Check Before You Drill

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George Stolz

George Stolz

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Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
And around here, if it's not in a chunk of 2" RMC, you can expect to never see it energized. Different strokes for different areas of the country.

I imagine the sensation I get when reading this...

Dennis Alwon said:
Rigid is the other alternative but that ain't going to happen.
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...is about the same sensation people get in Chicago when the rest of us ask incredulously, "You guys run EMT in houses?!?"

It's just par for the course here, and seeing pictures like that illustrate (to me, at least) why it makes sense. The odds of drilling through an RMC mast on accident is far lower (I mean, think about it), and if the idiot actually makes it through, you have a nice raceway surrounding the fault.

JMO. :)
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
George Stolz said:
So, are any of you east coast guys questioning the wisdom of SE stapled to the side of a house yet? :)
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Nope. :grin:

The odds of drilling through an RMC mast on accident is far lower (I mean, think about it), and if the idiot actually makes it through, you have a nice raceway surrounding the fault.
Click to expand...

Yeah, RMC keeps all the bad inside. :grin:


NB3.jpg
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
George Stolz said:
I'm sure we're talking about equivalent fault currents between the two photos. ;)
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No, but even the service conductors running to a home have a enough fault current to make holes in RMC.

Consider I can melt a hole through RMC with my welder set in the 90 amp range.
 
tom baker

tom baker

First Chief Moderator
Staff member
Location
Bremerton, Washington
There is a vast difference between a 120 V fault and 277 V fault. A 120 v fault does not have enough energy to sustain an arc, while a 277 does. Plus these are "unfused" service entrance conductors, which are protected against overload but not overcurrent. We have special rules in the NEC in Art 230 and 250 for protection of service entrance conductors. My state does not allow SE cable for a service entrance wiring method. Electricans out here don't even know what SE cable is and when I show them pictures they are pretty amazed. Installed properly its safe, mostly, of course the same can be said with RMC.
 
daleuger

daleuger

Senior Member
Location
earth
electricmanscott said:
We have guys here that will ride someone for changing a switch live but nobody is jumping on this. I don't get it. :-?
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Cutting taps to keep a house from burning to the ground is a little more urgent than not wanting to walk the extra 10 paces to turn off a breaker to a switch. That's my two cents.

stickboy1375 said:
Just about everything is safe without further human intervention. :)
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Ain't THAT the truth!!
 
hornetd

hornetd

Senior Member
Location
Maryland
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician, Retired
Conditions as first observed

Conditions as first observed

We are very fond of "conditions as first observed" photographs in fire and rescue. That is the kind of picture that the nozzle man snaps while waiting for the officer to finish his size up.
--
Tom Horne
 
peter d

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
knot stable said:
The power company said they could not be there for over an hour. I really had no choice. I could not see this home burning up for some stupid thing someone else did. That's nothing, the owner pulled out an aluminum ladder and his wife came running over with the garden hose. So things could have gotten much worse! Just when you think you seen it all. Theres always another chapter.
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Well, seeing as I only live about 10 minutes from you, could you give me the address of this house so I can drive by it? ;)
 
K

Karl H

Senior Member
Location
San Diego,CA
In a case like this, I would have cut the taps as well. Granted I have some
pretty good gear available. Then again, the house would have probably burned to the ground before I could get in the "Bee Suit."

East Coast guys use SE cable on the outside "Un- Protected?"
Even if installed properly, IMO would look like the wiring in
Mexico.:)
 
peter d

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
Karl H said:
East Coast guys use SE cable on the outside "Un- Protected?"
Even if installed properly, IMO would look like the wiring in
Mexico.:)
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Well, come on by, and you will see most of the Northeast looks like Mexico then. :roll: ;)

I echo the comments of the others. This is the result of stupidity, not a wiring method.
 
K

Karl H

Senior Member
Location
San Diego,CA
Do you guys get your neutrals by running a conductor across the street
to your uncles unfinished house and attaching to a exposed rebar sticking
out of the slab too? :grin:

I just got back from a fishing trip in Cabo. As far as the electrical,
all I can say is OMG!
 
peter d

peter d

Senior Member
Location
New England
Karl H said:
East Coast guys use SE cable on the outside "Un- Protected?"
Even if installed properly, IMO would look like the wiring in
Mexico.:)
Click to expand...

This comment is also rather amusing coming from a guy who lives in San Diego which just happens to share a border with Mexico. Because we all know there is no hack wiring done in California that looks like Mexican wiring. ;) :D
 
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