I run a Electrical Contracting business here in the Phoenix area. I recently wired an apartment that was destroyed in a fire. The entire apt. was gutted except for the block walls. So, it was a complete rewire as if it was a new building.
I had a friend contractor from Chicago area that was slow up there, so he came down to help me on this project. Up in IL, everything is in conduit, EMT indoors. Metal boxes, no NM at all. He suggested we go ahead and wire this apartment like he does in IL. I figured it wouldn't cost too much more and felt the end result would be really nice. So, we wired it all with EMT and THHN. Metal boxes the whole works.
The GC comes along and didn't know what we did. "What the heck is all this metal piping everywhere?" He didn't like it one bit. Also, we used different colors for each circuit. Purple, blue, yellow, black, orange.... He is so used to seeing romex with only black (or red) as the hots, he told me it was all wrong and I used the wrong color wiring everywhere. He wanted all black for the hots, white for the nuetrals. (we used grey on the arc fault circuits). He was certain there was no way the inspector would pass this.
He was so ready to have us pull it all out and redo it.
The inspector was very impressed.
Just goes to show how different regions have different methods. While one should definately consult with local modifications to the NEC, open minds should allow the electrician to decide the best method for the application.
