Bit off more than I can chew

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

WasGSOHM

Senior Member
Location
Montgomery County MD
Occupation
EE
I bought a paper copy of the NEC once.
It’s in English, I read English, what’s the problem?

The problem is that I do not and can not understand the NEC the same way a career electrician does, because of his knowledge and experiences.

It sure took me long enough to realize this. :(
 
Think of the code book as the laws in "I Robot". In theory as long as it doesn't violate the 1st or 2nd law, the smoke wont come out of the box.
 
The NEC is not a how to book, for untrained people
It does have some specific requirements of what must be done, but it doesn't always say how to do it. For example conduit must be bent so it is not damaged, how you do the bending is up to you.

The NEC says you cannot have objectionable current on your grounding conductors, but it offers no details on to absolutely avoid it, nor how much current is actually 'not objectionable.

I suggest taking a code course, although you should try to find one not geared specifically to an electrician passing a license. You may want the tangential discussions of any engineering reasons for the code language, as opposed to being worried about how to pass an inspection.
 
This is where you have it wrong:
WasGSOHM said:
I bought a paper copy of the NEC once. It’s in English, I read English. . . .
Click to expand...
No, it's not written in English. Whether or not we are aware of the fact, we each speak and read at least two languages. I will claim three. One of mine I like to call, "conversational English." Another is the language of the professional electrical engineer. A third is the language of the electrical construction industry, and I am still a novice in that one. But that one is the language in which the NEC is written. The NEC is written with its intended audience being electricians and electrical designers. Just being able to speak English is not enough.

Give yourself time, and spend some of that time here. Skill in the reading of the NEC is learnable.
 
charlie b said:
This is where you have it wrong:No, it's not written in English. Whether or not we are aware of the fact, we each speak and read at least two languages. I will claim three. One of mine I like to call, "conversational English." Another is the language of the professional electrical engineer. A third is the language of the electrical construction industry, and I am still a novice in that one. But that one is the language in which the NEC is written. The NEC is written with its intended audience being electricians and electrical designers. Just being able to speak English is not enough.

Give yourself time, and spend some of that time here. Skill in the reading of the NEC is learnable.
Click to expand...
Much of the time I spent in school was spent just learning how to navigate the NEC. They actually have a name for that part of class. Codeology. And a text book.

1608589268475.png
 
charlie b said:
This is where you have it wrong:No, it's not written in English. Whether or not we are aware of the fact, we each speak and read at least two languages. I will claim three. One of mine I like to call, "conversational English." Another is the language of the professional electrical engineer. A third is the language of the electrical construction industry, and I am still a novice in that one. But that one is the language in which the NEC is written. The NEC is written with its intended audience being electricians and electrical designers. Just being able to speak English is not enough.

Give yourself time, and spend some of that time here. Skill in the reading of the NEC is learnable.
Click to expand...
What brought this up was a lawyer's girlfriend's house was hit by lightning

I tried to explain the physics of lightning and he tried to explain the legal aspects of home insurance.

I later realized that no one of the other two who were listening understood what was being said in the same way the speaker understood it. They can't and will never.

I guess I never looked for this kind of thing before.

And if you read D. Tannen's work, men and women speak different languages. This I suspected for a long time. :)
 
Law...UGH.... at the least in the NEC if you don't agree with something, physics and electrons will back you up. With law there's too much "Because we said so" or interpretation. Not to say that not in the NEC but far less, and if in doubt electrons will ultimately decide for you, good or bad.
 
mikeames said:
Law...UGH.... at the least in the NEC if you don't agree with something, physics and electrons will back you up. With law there's too much "Because we said so" or interpretation. Not to say that not in the NEC but far less, and if in doubt electrons will ultimately decide for you, good or bad.
Click to expand...
Yeah, a quarter million dollars to learn three years of boring stuff. And it's a gamble if the judge rules in your favor no matter if the facts, the law, and the merits are on your side.

My ex-wife married a lawyer so I had personal reason for looking into this, but that was a long time ago.
He died on the operating table in 2004 and my ex now may be in the southwest.

Ya' think I'll see them both in a very hot place, someday??? :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top