Vendor NEC 110.3(B) continuing education classes

[DougAles]

I?m asking for your feedback about vendor NEC 110.3(B) continuing education classes. These classes teach installation and inspection on products.

1) Have you attended a vendor NEC 110.3(B) continuing education class?
2) How was it?

I have the utmost respect and admiration for the knowledge that exists in our industry and at this forum. I?m fortunate to be a seasoned vendor in this industry.

Even the smartest, most experienced amongst us doesn?t know everything, me included. However, 25 years of experience has given me a tremendous depth of wisdom in a narrow area of our industry.

Many states are requiring continuing education classes for electricians and inspectors. I live in one of these states.

Using almost a century of experience, four of us developed an installation instructional class, submitted the class to the state for continuing education credit and received approval. We offer the class free of charge. Our group takes the opportunity to provide our industry professionals this class very serious. We put so much into the class we often say if we did charge for the class, it would be more expensive then what would be considered affordable. I admit we have some unfair advantages. As a vendor, we can access tooling & products for hands on demonstrations, we have expense accounts to purchase necessary complementary items to make the class a success, and we can pick up our phones and access every specialist you can imagine, engineers, technical support, a member of the relevant NEC committee, and more.

We launched the class and it?s been a big hit. Feedback from electricians, inspectors, engineers and wholesale distributors has been very positive. We have added three additional classes.

I do have a fear. Although our team is very dedicated to education, if this is expanded, I could see some people making it a sales pitch for CEU credit. What?s so odd is I don?t sell a darn thing during the class. I teach best practice installation and inspection. However, the less I try to sell, the more I end up selling. It?s Ironic really. After the class, people come to me for help. That help results in sales for my employer.

The reason for this post is to ask for your comments about vendors offering NEC 110.3(B) continuing education class. What do you think about them?

 

[tom baker]

An entire class on 110.3(B)? How many hours?
It think it would be a good class and a change of pace.

 

[ron]

I agree, a class on using a product per its listing sounds either very short or very product specific.

I just was having an argument with an EC about lashing conductors for a Schneider SWGR installation, where the short circuit current was high enough to invoke the requirement in their installation manual. Is a manufacturer installation manual part of their listing, I think so.

 

[DougAles]

Thank you for your replies and questions Ron and Tom.

We have four approved classes and I?m close to completing and submitting a fifth class with two more classes behind them.

As far as class length, they tend to be 1 to 2 hours in length. We use physical ?hands-on? attendee participation to reinforce content.

Using two examples: PVC coated galvanized rigid conduit installation is a two hour class. Crimp terminal and compression lug installation is a one our class.

Just randomly picking one item we cover, crimping insulated terminals with a pliers tool. Before instruction, demonstration and practice, I ask the attendees to describe their current process. Sometimes attendees say when crimping with a pliers tool they crimp insulated terminals once, centered over the insulation, with the indent crimp nest. I instruct two crimps, using the non-intending nest, with the first crimp closest to the terminals tongue and the second crimp furthest from the terminals tongue. We also explain why we recommend this crimping method.

 

[PetrosA]

This sounds like an interesting idea. Nothing like it has been offered in my area.

I think the blame for incorrect installation methods is on both installers and manufacturers oftentimes. Many items simply don't come with instructions, nor are there any available on manufacturer websites for some items or the instructions are so wordy and complicated that installers don't use them. Lack of instructions seems to be a result of the assumption that professional installers already know what they're doing or an effect of the fact that suppliers break down bulk packages to sell individual pieces, while lengthy, complicated instructions seem to be mostly for DIYers.

One example of lack of instructions has to do with a three-gang nail-on box I installed a few months back (Carlon B344AB) which, in addition to the nails, has an integrated plastic tab on the side of the box opposite the nails. The inspector required that I mount blocking and secure that side of the box as well, because the tab is there and, according to the inspector, if there is a mounting means, it must be used. I checked in a lot of places but couldn't find any instructions or listing information that would clarify this. Taking his reasoning to an extreme, there are boxes available such as the SB2-236-FS, B455AH or N-321-C-94 where using every integrated mounting means would be ridiculous, if not impossible, but there is no clarification available on what the minimum acceptable mounting means are to maintain the product's listing status. Proper methods for installing these items are anybody's guess.

Examples of poor instruction design can be found in may products such as dimmer switches and LEDs, which often have way too much text included for the benefit of DIY Joe Homeowner and digging down through all the clutter in multiple languages to find something pertinent to a professional doing the installation can be too much of a waste of time. Ikea has figured out a way to use pictograms to put together whole pieces of furniture, but Lutron can't get past needing 8,000 words to explain how to install a dimmer switch. Seagull needs 303 words on their website and 413 words in the spec sheet to clarify how many LEDs can go on one dimmer. Crazy.

For comparison, the above rant only contains 379 words

Edit to add: I exaggerated. The English instructions for an Ariadne dimmer only contain 980 words The Declaration of Independence contains 1338 words.