How to master the nec

The electron man

Senior Member
Location
Nyc
Occupation
Electrician
Hey guys new electrician here, I work for a merit shop in NYC what's your the best advice you can give me to master the NEC are mike holts books as good a they say they are I'm the type of person If I don't understand something about electrical it sits on my mind 24/7 till i understand it

World love to here your guys 2 cents thanks
 

Sea Nile

Senior Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Electrician
Hey guys new electrician here, I work for a merit shop in NYC what's your the best advice you can give me to master the NEC are mike holts books as good a they say they are I'm the type of person If I don't understand something about electrical it sits on my mind 24/7 till i understand it

World love to here your guys 2 cents thanks
There are so many free mike holt videos on his website and YouTube. You can get a good idea if it fits your learning style before you invest. It works for me.
 

Joethemechanic

Senior Member
Location
Hazleton Pa
Occupation
Electro-Mechanical Technician. Industrial machinery
Ah, understanding what you're reading in the NEC. It's on the shelf next to "Understanding Women".
Whenever I talk to women, I feel like I'm dealing with The Riddler
 

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Sea Nile

Senior Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Electrician
To answer your question, and as someone who actually purchased and used the product, it was worth it to me.
 

bwat

EE
Location
NC
Occupation
EE
Some tips:

- Try to stay active on this forum. Even if you aren't posting. Try to make it a routine to read a couple threads and see if you understand what people are saying in the responses. If you don't understand something, look it up. There are some really wise people here, and you'll start to see a lot of commonalities in responses and sections that are referenced

- As Larry said, memorizing specific details is almost impossible and useless, but knowing where to go is very usesful. What that looks like for me is memorizing certain article numbers and chapter numbers. Just big picture. Almost like just stepping back and trying to visualize the NEC's topics in your mind. Practically for me it's similar to (very lightly) studying the table of contents for the NEC. Step 1: Have just the chapter titles ingrained in you for Chapters 1 through 4 (the most commonly reference chapters). That's only 4 things to remember, so it should be quick. Step 2: Memorize just a few of the article numbers in those chapters that you think you'll reference often. You'll be amazed at how much this helps you. You only need to know the title/topic. Simple example: Know that 250 is grounding and bonding. You don't need a large list here. I've been in this industry for many years, and off hand, I could only do this for about 10 articles. 100, 110, 210, 215, 230, 240, 250, 310, 430, 450, 690/1, and 705 for me. Others, most likely you as well, will want to have different lists of articles that are important to you.
 

infinity

Moderator
Staff member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Journeyman Electrician
I have many of Mike's books and I can say that they're worth the money especially if you're a visual learner. Also sign up for Mike's free stuff.

This forum is also extremely valuable. Before I even looked at this forum I had graduated from a 5.5 year apprenticeship and had passed the NJ electrical contractors licensing exam. I thought that I knew a lot, that was until I started hanging around here. That's when I found out that I actually knew very little. A humbling experience to say the least.
 

PaulMmn

Senior Member
Location
Union, KY, USA
Occupation
EIT - Engineer in Training, Lafayette College
NEC is the rulebook. Mike is the reason behind the rules. Reading here, you get a bit of both-- and some very interesting real-world examples!
 

Fred B

Senior Member
Location
Upstate, NY
Occupation
Electrician
Hey guys new electrician here, I work for a merit shop in NYC what's your the best advice you can give me to master the NEC are mike holts books as good a they say they are I'm the type of person If I don't understand something about electrical it sits on my mind 24/7 till i understand it

World love to here your guys 2 cents thanks

Mike Holts' books and videos offer nice explanation on a wide scope of items related to NEC. The forum here also good source, but sometimes got to weed way through a lot of opinion.

Might also suggest getting membership with IAEI, the locals have a regular in person trainings focused on the NEC. Not just for inspectors. IAEI Membership

Also the NFPA70 Handbook has a lot of extra explanation on the codes not just the code language. NFPA Link gives access to a lot of background extra on code sections.
 

mayanees

Senior Member
Location
Westminster, MD
Occupation
Electrical Engineer and Master Electrician
Hey guys new electrician here, I work for a merit shop in NYC what's your the best advice you can give me to master the NEC are mike holts books as good a they say they are I'm the type of person If I don't understand something about electrical it sits on my mind 24/7 till i understand it

World love to here your guys 2 cents thanks
I suggest getting an NFPA Link subscription. You can get free access by registering with an email address, but I think the free-access version is very limited. If you get the $99.99/year version its searchable and very full functioning. And not only is NFPA 70 (NEC) accessible, but all of the NFPA standards are. And another one you should get familiar with is NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace.
 

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
I suggest getting an NFPA Link subscription. You can get free access by registering with an email address, but I think the free-access version is very limited. If you get the $99.99/year version its searchable and very full functioning. And not only is NFPA 70 (NEC) accessible, but all of the NFPA standards are. And another one you should get familiar with is NFPA 70E Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace.
And in addition, the "enhanced content" on Link, is the handbook commentary. Just not that neither the enhanced content nor the handbook are official interpretations of the code rules.
 
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