Can anyone, anyone at all tell me why in a fresh water boat house uf is not acceptable for branch circuits when run in the ceiling. Please don't say because the code says I'm trying to figure out how that does anything for electric shock drowning Or ESD.
555.37 b
- Thread starter Camden123
- Start date
Buck Parrish
Senior Member
- Location
- NC & IN
When I am standing on the boat I look around for things to hang stuff on to dry it out.
That being said. Is it not allowed because of the required insulated grounding conductor. I thought their was an exception for the insulated grounding wire 'if part of a cable assembly'. However I am not seeing it in my 2020 book.
I believe the Genesis for this change was based on an event that happened at Smith Mountain lake some years ago where two young people drowned from end. I'm not for one second advocating unsafe practice but a piece of uf 10 foot above the water is not the issue. I recently got called to a boathouse I wired and the owner stated he was getting tingled 5 foot from his ladder while in the water. Yes the ladder was bonded to the system. Power was removed from the boathouse and power was determed from a neighbors boathouse some 60 feet away and he too had 7.8 volts coming from the water. My point is that if I had that boathouse wired the way this one jurisdiction is making us do it then that problem would still be present regardless of insulated grounds. Someone is going to get hurt or killed with this .