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. Can you identify the specific Code violation(s) in this photo? Note: Submitted comments must include specific references from the 2014 NEC.
Hint: A fitting fiasco
Tell Them What They Have Won...
Using the 2014 NEC, correctly identify the Code violation(s) in this month’s photo — in 200 words or less — and you could win an Arlington Industries FLBR101MB Non-Metallic Floor Box with Metal Cover. E-mail your response, including your name and mailing address, to [email protected], and Russ will select three winners (excluding manufacturers and prior winners) at random from the correct submissions. Note that submissions without an address will not be eligible to win.
December Winners
Where subject to damage from frost heaves or settling earth, Sec. 300.5(J) requires direct-buried raceways to be arranged in a manner that prevents damage to the conductors or the equipment connected to the raceways. According to the Informational Note in this section, flexible connections or an expansion fitting for the raceway could be used. Section 300.7(B) similarly requires expansion fittings for the raceway to compensate for thermal expansion and contraction where necessary. Whether this pipe separated from the meter socket due to ground movement or thermal expansion or contraction does not really matter. Installing an expansion fitting probably would have been the best way to prevent this separation from happening in the first place.
Another violation to point out is the way in which coaxial cable has been secured to the raceway. As stated in Sec. 820.133(B), these coaxial cables cannot be secured to the raceway as a means of support. But we definitely hang this one on the “Cable Guy.”