How well do you know the Code? Think you can spot violations the original installer either ignored or couldn't identify? Here's your chance to moonlight as an electrical inspector and second-guess someone else's work from the safety of your living room or office. It's your turn to identify the violation.
Hint: Too close for comfort
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When sizing junction boxes or pull boxes for cables and raceways containing conductors 4 AWG and larger, Sec. 314.28 of the 2017 NEC outlines several requirements for box dimensions and raceway spacing. More specifically, 314.28(A)(1) requires the box length to be at least eight times the trade size of the largest raceway. For angle pulls, U pulls, or where the wires are spliced inside the box, 314.28(A)(2) requires the distance between the raceway entry and the opposite wall in the box to be at least six times the trade size of the raceway. This distance then gets increased by the sum of all the other raceway entries in that row, on that same side of the box. For raceways enclosing the same conductors, the raceways must be spaced apart a distance of at least six times the larger raceway. For example, a 2-in. raceway entry would need to be spaced at least 12 in. from any other raceway containing the same conductors. As we can see in this installation, this rule was not applied by the installer that did this work. The 2-in. raceway is spaced only 4 in. apart from the 1¼-in. raceway. Boxes that are too small — and raceways that are too close — can lead to damaged conductors due to bending spaces that are too tight.