Introduction:
As always, pardon my English idiomatic expressions and grammar.
I was in Tucson for many years and I never used POCO to cut the power out in all my upgrades. I cut the service drop and hold it, if needed a new mast, on any manner on the roof and do the complete upgrade, then I “temporary clamped” the new ungrounded conductors to the service drop and “double clamped” the neutral (I always overdone things as you know the consequences of a loose neutrals. Never POCO questioned my system and even they recommended me to customers as the complete upgraded was done in 4 (+-) hours. Later code enforcement inspectors inspected, approved and POCO did the permanent connection. The same on lateral services that didn’t need a meter/meter base replacement. Of course, if the upgrade consists in replacing the whole service on a lateral, including the meter, then POCO did the cut at the transformer, but I did the rest and later POCO powered the system, etc. See the photo as example, the lateral needed to be cut by POCO but not the overhead one.
When I was doing an upgrade in WA and waiting for POCO, the inspector was present and told me: you are an electrician, you know what you are doing, go ahead and do your thing, and I did the same, only once as I did in Tucson.
So, investigating the same situation in Phoenix area, I found that it is a felony, punish by jail time and monetary penalties if a contractor do the above.
So, the contractor need to call POCO to cut the power, do the upgrade, wait for Code Enforcement inspector to approve and then call POCO to reactivate the power. Well, a process that can take + or – 4 hours takes 10 hours or more, and most of the time involved is WAITING! AND I find this ridiculous; we are the electrician, the experts.
Proposal #1
So, I propose that POCOs, nationwide, provide a certification to the electricians that “pass their examination and qualifications” to do the above. Sometimes we “create an emergency” to do our own off/on power, but that is not the way it should be.
Introduction:
In early 90, I starting using double pole breakers for all multiwiring circuits and using plastic ties to group the neutral of those circuits, some critiqued me for that, but later on it was “mandatory” in later NCE codes.
Proposal #2 (I don’t know if there is something related)
Manufacturers should manufacture for new installations a cable exclusively for multiwiring, Red, Black, Bare and neutral with 3 vertical lines as Blue, Red and Black and fabricate rolls of white with the same colors: Red, Black and Blue vertical lines for conduit installations.
Proposal #3
For retrofit, upgrades, etc., manufacturers should fabricate sleeves (like the shrinking ones) in white with the same colors: black, Blue and Red vertical lines to sleeve in existing neutral for multiwiring when doing the repairs/upgrades, in this way the multiwiring neutral will be permanently identified.
Introduction:
Sometimes we have to notch the framing and those are only 1 ½” (2 x 4, 2 x 6, etc.) and we protect the cable with a plate of the same wide dimension, but many times when the drywall is been installed the installer, today, go on fast sequence with an automatic drill/driver and many times (happened to me twice) the drywall screw slips on the plate and hit the cable. In one occasion, the screw damaged a neutral in a multiwire cable and had bad consequences.
Proposal #4
Manufacturers should manufacture a 3” wide plate so we can have 1” extra on each side to avoid screw penetrations. (I am using now two plates taped on the back and the drywall installation keeps it in place)
And finally, I think we should propose some of the above to NEC
As always, pardon my English idiomatic expressions and grammar.
I was in Tucson for many years and I never used POCO to cut the power out in all my upgrades. I cut the service drop and hold it, if needed a new mast, on any manner on the roof and do the complete upgrade, then I “temporary clamped” the new ungrounded conductors to the service drop and “double clamped” the neutral (I always overdone things as you know the consequences of a loose neutrals. Never POCO questioned my system and even they recommended me to customers as the complete upgraded was done in 4 (+-) hours. Later code enforcement inspectors inspected, approved and POCO did the permanent connection. The same on lateral services that didn’t need a meter/meter base replacement. Of course, if the upgrade consists in replacing the whole service on a lateral, including the meter, then POCO did the cut at the transformer, but I did the rest and later POCO powered the system, etc. See the photo as example, the lateral needed to be cut by POCO but not the overhead one.
When I was doing an upgrade in WA and waiting for POCO, the inspector was present and told me: you are an electrician, you know what you are doing, go ahead and do your thing, and I did the same, only once as I did in Tucson.
So, investigating the same situation in Phoenix area, I found that it is a felony, punish by jail time and monetary penalties if a contractor do the above.
So, the contractor need to call POCO to cut the power, do the upgrade, wait for Code Enforcement inspector to approve and then call POCO to reactivate the power. Well, a process that can take + or – 4 hours takes 10 hours or more, and most of the time involved is WAITING! AND I find this ridiculous; we are the electrician, the experts.
Proposal #1
So, I propose that POCOs, nationwide, provide a certification to the electricians that “pass their examination and qualifications” to do the above. Sometimes we “create an emergency” to do our own off/on power, but that is not the way it should be.
Introduction:
In early 90, I starting using double pole breakers for all multiwiring circuits and using plastic ties to group the neutral of those circuits, some critiqued me for that, but later on it was “mandatory” in later NCE codes.
Proposal #2 (I don’t know if there is something related)
Manufacturers should manufacture for new installations a cable exclusively for multiwiring, Red, Black, Bare and neutral with 3 vertical lines as Blue, Red and Black and fabricate rolls of white with the same colors: Red, Black and Blue vertical lines for conduit installations.
Proposal #3
For retrofit, upgrades, etc., manufacturers should fabricate sleeves (like the shrinking ones) in white with the same colors: black, Blue and Red vertical lines to sleeve in existing neutral for multiwiring when doing the repairs/upgrades, in this way the multiwiring neutral will be permanently identified.
Introduction:
Sometimes we have to notch the framing and those are only 1 ½” (2 x 4, 2 x 6, etc.) and we protect the cable with a plate of the same wide dimension, but many times when the drywall is been installed the installer, today, go on fast sequence with an automatic drill/driver and many times (happened to me twice) the drywall screw slips on the plate and hit the cable. In one occasion, the screw damaged a neutral in a multiwire cable and had bad consequences.
Proposal #4
Manufacturers should manufacture a 3” wide plate so we can have 1” extra on each side to avoid screw penetrations. (I am using now two plates taped on the back and the drywall installation keeps it in place)
And finally, I think we should propose some of the above to NEC