garages

[bobben]

I have a situation that doesn't involve new construction, but is a very aggrivating situation.
Condominium board members trying to design electrical installations. The situation: 18 garages 10 x 20 in a freestanding building built in the 1970's . The 18 garages had a single light with a pullchain and no walls between each unit. 1- 120 Volt 20 amp circuit provided power to the lights. Then they came along and put garage doors and garage door openers ranging from 1/3 hp to 3/4 hp with romex and zip cord a myriad of added fluorescents in some units,and zip cord wired outlets running the occasional table saw or tile saw. Then they added a 10 x 15 shop on one end with a refrigerator, two fluorescent 8' 2 bulb fixtures, and a workbench with an 8 outlet strip . Still powered by a single circuit. This has been in operation for about 15 years. I received a call to repair the some rusty conduit and remove the zip cord. I did a load calculation and presented a proposal to rewire the building to NEC specs.
They took my proposal (with a few others) into the condo board meeting and decided to add 1 - 20 Amp. 120 Volt circuit since the installation had been doing fine for the last 15 years. They also want to add lights on the outside of the building.
At that point I had to walk away.

I find the technical articles and instruction and seminars very informative, but no one ever told me how to deal with this mentality. Help

 

[roger]

Re: garages

Maybe their Insurance Company, Fire Marshal, and Permitting / Inspections department would be interested.

Roger

[ February 28, 2006, 12:22 PM: Message edited by: roger ]

 

[charlie b]

Re: garages

Originally posted by bobben: . . . since the installation had been doing fine for the last 15 years.

I like to use the following analogy, whenever someone tells me, ?It?s never been a problem before.?
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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suppose that just before you back your car out of the driveway each morning, you put on blinders and earmuffs.</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Suppose that you wait for a random amount of time, and then just back into the street.</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When you get into the street, you can take off the blinders and the earmuffs, and drive to work.</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font>

• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Question: If you do this ten days in a row, and if you don?t hit anything during those ten days, would you conclude that this is a safe driving habit? Or would it take 20 consecutive days without incident, to convince you it was safe? 30? How many?</font>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Everyone is welcome to steal this analogy shamelessly. But give me authorship credit, if you wish to use the following aphorism:

"An accident waiting for a place to happen will, given time, find that place.? Charlie Beck

 

[bthielen]

Re: garages

As far as how to deal with this type of situation, it appears that you have done exactly what you should have done. You offered them the opportunity to have the system done correctly and safely. They refuse to accept that offer and you will not sacrifice your credentials to satisfy them.

If your area has adopted minimum requirements it may be appropriate to consider watching to be sure they do get it done right or at the very least alert proper authorities to the potential failure to comply with applicable codes. This may even be done anonymously. But then, how involved do you want to be? We are bound by duty in this country to get involved when safety is at risk so I'll leave it up to you to decide for yourself what your next course of action might be.

Bob