I believe the article is 310.16. My wife took my code book with her this morning, sorry.
After being busted for this on a job I was on, there seemed to be much confusion about how to go about counting the number of current carrying conductors. The confusion being the exception about not having to count the neutral if it only carries the unbalanced load. When I was just starting out I had a journeyman explain that when you have a single split phase system the 2 hots go back and forth acting as returns to ground. That is why something like a water heater only needs two lines. The reason a neutral can be downsized on a residential service is because it only carries the unbalanced load. So, I figure that something like a receptacle circuit would have a hot and a ground. That would count as 2. Something like a range would have 2 hots and a neutral. That would also count as 2 because the neutral carries the unbalanced load.
Now, the inspector and 2 journeyman have explained to me that if you have a power circuit it counts as 1. Their reason being, if it's on the same circuit it doesn't count, but if you read a little more it says, "and it's only carrying the unbalanced load." If you have range it counts as 2 and if you have a shared neutral (such as dish/disposal) it counts as 3. This doesn't make any sense to me. It seems as though my perception as to how this all works is flawed.
I tried looking on the internet for a definition of unbalanced neutral or how to count this crap, but I didn't really turn up anything useful. Please set me straight, this has been bugging me for months.
After being busted for this on a job I was on, there seemed to be much confusion about how to go about counting the number of current carrying conductors. The confusion being the exception about not having to count the neutral if it only carries the unbalanced load. When I was just starting out I had a journeyman explain that when you have a single split phase system the 2 hots go back and forth acting as returns to ground. That is why something like a water heater only needs two lines. The reason a neutral can be downsized on a residential service is because it only carries the unbalanced load. So, I figure that something like a receptacle circuit would have a hot and a ground. That would count as 2. Something like a range would have 2 hots and a neutral. That would also count as 2 because the neutral carries the unbalanced load.
Now, the inspector and 2 journeyman have explained to me that if you have a power circuit it counts as 1. Their reason being, if it's on the same circuit it doesn't count, but if you read a little more it says, "and it's only carrying the unbalanced load." If you have range it counts as 2 and if you have a shared neutral (such as dish/disposal) it counts as 3. This doesn't make any sense to me. It seems as though my perception as to how this all works is flawed.
I tried looking on the internet for a definition of unbalanced neutral or how to count this crap, but I didn't really turn up anything useful. Please set me straight, this has been bugging me for months.