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. Joe Tedesco, who has a knack for finding shoddy electrical work, did the dirty work and found this mess. Now it's your turn to identify the violation.
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Answer:
Reader Doug Kidd of Kincaid*Bryant, in Lynchburg, Va., found this installation recently while designing a chiller replacement at a state college. The original installation was part of a major building renovation in 1985. The design included a 2,000A high-pressure contact main switch in the switchboard as the building service disconnect.
Aside from this, the electrician had only installed three parallel sets of 500 kcmil as the service lateral, per the design specifications.
Kidd advised the Owner to immediately replace the so-called fuses and included adding a new service lateral to the design.
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About the Author
Joe Tedesco
Tedesco served the industry in many roles during his career. He was a director, senior electrical code instructor for National Technology Transfer, Inc. and American Trainco, Inc.. He was also a codes, standards and seminar specialist for the International Association of Electrical Inspectors and an electrical field service specialist for the National Fire Protection Association in Quincy, Mass. He ran his own business as an NEC consultant and is a Massachusetts licensed master electrician and journeyman electrician and certified electrical inspector (one and two family 2A; General 2B, and Plan Review, 2C). Tedesco also wrote articles for CEE News and EC&M (Code Violations Illustrated and What's Wrong Here?) for more than 15 years and helped launched the Moving Violations video series.