KaiserJeep wrote:Meeting the electrical codes, whether mandated or not, is a good thing. I remember the time about 8 years ago when I agreed to help out somebody who was running a remote water feature about 50' from his garden shed. He was a former electronics tech in my former department at my former employer, and he should have known better. He had one large PV panel, two 12v car batteries, and an inverter to run a 1/6th hp pond pump on a timer set to run noon to 4PM. There was one black and one red wire from the panel, laid directly on the galvanized steel shed roof and then run over the side, where the metal edge was cutting through the vinyl insulation. Then he had buried some jacketed 3-conductor SV wire from the shed to the pond pump which had actually had the outer EPDM jacket damaged in at least two spots, not to mention, a big wad of vinyl electrical tape which he had wrapped around the spot where he had spliced the SV wire into the original power cord.
He had never been a good tech, but he had frequently gifted me with fresh tomatoes, and we drank in the same bar. I gave him some good advice about safe wiring practices and easy-to-use PVC conduits, and offered to help him do this. He never took me up on that offer.
sparky wrote:.
Remember the great roof isolation disaster , that was only a few fiber glass battens
done by really anyone who could walk and chew gum .
baha wrote:I've learned something interesting as I analyze my power usage that directly applies to NEC codes.
My house still has the original fuse box powering the ceiling lights and some outlets. It has all 30 amp fuses in the 15 amp circuits. But when I migrate them to a circuit breaker I use a 15 amp breaker and all is well...Looking at loads I realize if you turn on the coffee pot and the toaster at the same time you are pulling 22 amps on one circuit. In the old days that would pop a 15 amp fuse instantly. But it turns out a circuit breaker is capable of carrying twice it's rated load for over 30 minutes. In fact it takes over 10 times the rated load to instantly kick a breaker.
This is because breakers are based on heat build up rather than instant current and are matched to the rating of the wires in the circuit. So if you put an oversized breaker on a circuit you run the risk of melting the insulation on the wires.
This points out the need to match the OPD (overcurrent protection device) to the size of the wire/circuit as spelled out by the NEC code. If your load kicks the breaker you need to move to a bigger circuit.
Alfred Tennyson wrote:We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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