“STAB-WIRED” WACKINESS
EC&M reader Bob Brooks shared this fantastic photo with us. In his words, “I found this ‘questionable’ installation in my daughter’s old apartment basement. At least the polarity is right, and the ground wire is bonded to the box. I checked, and the cable feeding the box has its ground tied to the Romex connector. I guess I’d give them an ‘E’ for effort.”
While this may be creative, it’s no way to extend the branch circuit wiring. Receptacles are designed for the installation of an attachment plug or utilization equipment with a corresponding contact device. Stabbing wires into the receptacle slots is a violation of Sec. 110.3(B). This method could also result in serious arcing and sparking, eventually leading to a fire. Attaching the equipment grounding wire to the cover mounting screw instead of a “grounding screw used for no other purpose,” is a violation of Sec. 250.148(C). Where NM cable is used with a metal box, Sec. 314.17(B) requires the NM cable to be secured to the box. Section 334.30 requires this NM cable to be secured within 12 in. of the cable’s entry into the box, which, in this case, I suppose is through the face of the receptacle.
INATTENTIVE INSPECTOR
Another anonymous reader shared this photo with us. This work was discovered during an inspection of a newly purchased home. Apparently, the home inspector missed a few issues inside this panel. Starting at the top of the photo, we can see a white neutral wire doubled-up under the same terminal with a bare equipment ground wire. Doubling-up wires is generally a violation of Sec. 110.14(A), unless the terminal is specifically designed for it. The next violation, located on the neutral bus, is the small black branch-circuit conductor terminated on it. Using black insulation to identify a grounded neutral conductor sizes 6 AWG and smaller is a violation of Sec. 200.6(A). The larger black conductor on the neutral bus is probably the grounding electrode conductor (GEC), which is permitted to be black. Moving further down on the left, we can see a black wire and a white wire landed on the same top left terminal. Are these small wires being used in parallel? If so, this violates Sec. 310.10(H) because they are smaller than 1/0 AWG. You may notice several white wires landed on circuit breaker terminals. Using white insulation for ungrounded conductors is permitted only where the white insulation is re-identified to indicate its use as an ungrounded conductor in accordance with Sec. 200.7(C).