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Ask What Up? What Up?
Everybody? Welcome to another episode of Let's

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Ask Paul, the podcast where you
get to submit questions to me on the

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National Electric Code all through our free
portal sponsored by Wicks over at Paul Abernathy

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dot com. Now in that portal
you can put your name, email address,

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and post your question easy peasy.
You can even listen to all of

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the episodes from the Ask Paul series
there as well on that web page.

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But that's where you go to submit
questions to me, and if selected,

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I'll answer them in an email or
an upcoming podcast much like today's and coming

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up starting June twenty eighth, twenty
twenty three. So depending on when you're

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listening to this podcast, you can
join us on Wednesday nights at fast Tracks

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Live and it's available on all of
our social media platforms, which you can

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also watch it free over on fast
tracks Tube as well, even Rumble.

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If you want to watch it over
and Rumble, just search for us master

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the Anc as our user name everywhere. And we're going to even answer some

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of these questions live on air.
So if you want to get your questions

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answered live, then submit them to
us through the Paul Abernathy dot com portal

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or you could even send them to
support Suppo RT at fast tracks system dot

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com and be more than happy to
answer those questions for you during our Wednesday

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night show. All Right, so
this question was submitted to me, and

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I thought it'd be a great question
to focus on for this episode because there

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is a lot of opinions rolling around
about it and misconceptions about conductors and reidentifying

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a conductor, and so this is
a very specific question. I've looked it

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over and the question is very much
focused on they have some cable that has

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a black red blue in it,
and they want they're in a building and

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this building hash and these are big
branch circuits by the way, and they

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have black red blues and they and
they have another voltage system in the building.

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Okay, they have another voltage system
and they want to be able to

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use that same cable with black red
blue. But they want to phase it

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out brown orange, yellow or whatever
you know, other coloring they want to

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use. They want to phase it
out, but they want to use this

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same cable. So there's many people
that say that you can't do that.

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So let's read us questions, says
Dear Paul, Thanks advanced for your podcasts.

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I listened to it every day on
the job site. You have over

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six hundred of them. I appreciate
the effort that you put in to help

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educate us electricians. My question revolves
around the fact that we purchased quite a

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large amount of a metal clad cable
with black red blue inners. We now

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have a project where we have two
voltage classes that are on the project,

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and our inspector is telling us that
we can't use the black red blue for

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the higher voltage classes, which we
typically would mark brown orange yellow. Is

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this in the code and why can't
we use this same cable assembly as long

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as we reidentified. Thanks in advance
and again, love your podcast. Look

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forward to listening to this episode.
Okay, great question. I don't know

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how you knew it would become an
episode because I could have just responded back

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in an email, which I actually
have, but you it's a great topic,

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so I wanted to make sure that
I do a podcast on it.

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So what your inspectors saying here is
he's basically invoking the requirements and since you

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said it was brand circuits, but
again, there's a feeder rule for this

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as well. It's two ten dot
five C and it's the identification of the

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ungrounded conductors. Now, in this
scenario, what you've got is you have

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a brand circuit that's applying of some
circuits in a building in the premise wiring,

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and there's more than one voltage class
in this building. So the rules

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calls for the identification of these ungrounded
conductors. So it's not confusing, right,

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We know that this black red blues
for one voltage class for one specific

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application, and then you have another
one which could be brown, orange,

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yellow, but it could be whatever
colors you want generally speak, and we're

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not talking about a delta high lag
where it's got to be orange. If

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color is a choice, then it
would have to be orange if it's colors

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used, because you could use tagging
and other things that not have to be

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orange. But that's not what we're
talking about. We're just talking about the

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selection of phase colors. And for
those say, oh but it is very

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GERMANE, well okay, well then
you go you go read that rule and

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you know when it's got to be
orange, then you're happy. You know

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when it's got to be orange.
All right, We're not getting into that,

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all right, So let me read
what it says. So two ten

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dot five identification of brand circuits.
See, it says identification of ungrounded conductors.

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And obviously we have two ten dot
five A and B, which is

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identification of the grounded conductor, which
is going to send you to two hundred

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dot six, and then equipment grounded
conductor which is going to send you to

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two fifty dot one nineteen. So
those are covered. So they're really focused

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on the ungrounded hot conductors. So
here's what the code says. It says,

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ungrounded conductors shall be identified in accordance
with two ten five C one or

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two as applicable. Okay, So
C one says this brand circuit supplying from

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supplied from more than one nominal voltage
source. It says, where the premise

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wiring system has brand circuits supplied from
more than one nominal voltage system obviously in

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the building, so you could have
a one twenty two footy volte system in

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there, and you could have a
two seventy seven four eighty volt system in

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there. Okay, you could have
brand circuits in this building coming from two

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separate sources. And again the code
is going to have applications where it permits

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you to have these different sources there, or could be a transformer that changes

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these sources to different voltage classes within
the building. The point being is you've

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got two different voltage classes in here. Okay. It says each ungrounded conductor

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of a brand circuit shall be identified
by phase or line and by no voltage

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system at all terminations connection splice points
in accordance with two ten two ten dot

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five C one A and C one
B, which we're going to look at

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here in a second. It says
different systems within the same premise that have

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the same nominal voltage should be permitted
to use the same identification. And what

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that means is if I have a
one twenty two forty and a one twenty

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two aweight in a building, whatever
I use for the one twenty it can

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be the same identification, whether it's
the one twenty two forty or the one

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twenty two O eight. That's what
that means. Okay, you don't have

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to come up with another color just
because of the one twenty volte circuits.

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If it's one twenty vold, it's
one twenty volts, so it doesn't matter.

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That's what that line says, and
that was actually added last cycle.

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Okay, all right, so when
I'm looking at it, and i'm again,

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folks, I'm in the twenty twenty
three case. You're wondering, I'm

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in the twenty twenty three edition.
But it's the same thing. It really

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much pretty much says the same thing
in either one. All right, Now

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there's an A and a B.
Here's what A says means of identification.

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It says the means of identification shall
be permitted to be by separate color coding,

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marking tape, tagging, or other
approved means. Okay, so let

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me start out with this. If
you have an MC cable that has black,

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red, blue, but you need
to reidentify it for a color scheme

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that references another nominal vaultage system,
then you can do that with marking tape.

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You could do that with tagging or
other approved means, maybe heat shrink

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if that's what the hj's okay with. Maybe you don't want to use the

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color coding of the insulation. But
at terminals, remember you're supposed to do

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this, where at terminations, connections
and splice points, you're going to reidentify

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it with marking tape with the new
color identification that you choose for that voltage

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class at that location. So if
that means that I have a red conductor

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and I'm wrapping it with brown tape
at the termination, then so be it.

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Now the key is I have to
go to B, which is posting

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of identification meanings. So if I'm
going to take a conductor that is red

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and I'm going to put brown tape
around at the termination, then I need

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to make sure that my method of
identifying this is available, okay, And

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so let me read you what it
says about posting of identification means. And

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remember this is kind of no different
than striping. If I have a certain

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color with a certain color stripe on
it, then you identify it accordingly.

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This is no different if a red
conductor with brown tape, Okay, however

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you identify it to make it very
clear. Then you want to make sure

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that you convey that to people.
So here's what it says for B of

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this rule. It says posting of
identification means. It says the method you

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used, the method you used for
conductors originating within each brand circuit panelboard or

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similar brand circuit distribution equipment. Shall
be documented in a manner that is readily

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available or shall be permanently posted at
each brand circuit panelboard or similar brand circuit

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distribution equipment. The labels shall be
of sufficient durability to withstand the environmental environment

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involved, and shall not be handwritten. So you're you're gonna type out this,

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you're a phonomic label or whatever you're
going to do in order to make

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sure that you have this identification,
okay, And the point of that is

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that whatever you choose to do,
whatever you choose to reidentify, wrap and

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tape that whoever's there can read it. It's not handwritten. It's very clear

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what you're trying to do. So
there's nothing in the code that says that

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I can't take a cable with black, red, blue and use it by

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reidentifying it, by taping it another
color and making sure that it's very distinctly

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marked at these locations. The difference
between the two systems, so what are

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the color schemes being used for the
one voltage class and then what's the color

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schemes and very distinctive identification of the
other voltage class that will be in the

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same building. That are brand circuits
now this also applies to feeders as well.

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Okay, same scenario. So I
think it's very clear to me anyway

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that it's telling me that I can
do it by color coding, marking,

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tape, tags, or other approved
means. And just because my color has

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an installation. Remember years ago all
we had was black and we had to

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phase these things out. Well,
now just because the installation is colored,

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that makes it more convenient to leave. If that's what you want to select

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your purchase and get your color coordinated
ahead of time, that's great. But

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there's nothing in here that says that
I cannot take a red and put blue

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tape on it, or a blue
and put red tape on it, or

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a black and put orange tape on
it. There's nothing that says that I

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can't do that within the allowance of
two ten five C one right. So

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again that's kind of hopefully that answers
the questions. So again, if you

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have an inspector who has a problem
with this, you know, again,

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if it's in a race way,
you're not going to see it anyway.

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The portion that comes out now,
this only requires that you identify it at

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the termination, right, and at
any connection point or any splice point that

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you maintain it. If you do
it at the panel, you want to

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make sure you maintain it through the
system, so no matter where they open

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it up, they're very clear what's
going on. Right. But if you

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do that, absolutely nothing says that
you can't do that. Now, that

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doesn't mean everybody go out and just
buy one standard black red blue and use

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that for both one twenty two forty
or one twenty two eight and then use

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it again into seventy seven for eighty
although you can. Most people are going

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to buy color. That's the whole
purpose of buying. If if you're not

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going to do that, then you
might as well just buy black conductors.

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Okay, So that's the reason why
people. But in case somebody happen to

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run into a situation where they're like, crap, I'm in a bind and

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all I have is black red blue
in the SMC cable or for example,

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can I reidentify those conductors with phase
tape and the marking tape? And the

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answer is absolutely yes. Two ten
dot five C one says it. Now,

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whether somebody says, well that's confusing
because I see the insulation color and

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I see the tape. Well,
that's because the National Electric Code is not

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for the untrained person. If you're
a trained person, then you know what

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two ten five C says, and
you're looking at that termination, and you're

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looking for the color that's being used
at that termination and how it corresponds with

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the required posting of the markings,
right, and then it should be fairly

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obvious to you as a trained professional. Okay, we don't want everyday Joe

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just doing this. These are trained
professionals and the code is written in a

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certain way. So again that's the
importance of learning the code, because if

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you don't know the code, then
yeah, I can see where you get

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confused. Right. Anyway, that's
my take on it. I hope you

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got something out of that and we're
able to help you out just a little

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bit. If you have any questions, feel free. I'm more than happy

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to give my opinion. Just go
to Paul Abernathy dot com, submit your

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question and I will answer it.
Hopefully it'll be answered in the live shows

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starting June twenty eighth, but it
also could be on upcoming podcast. Till

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next time, Stay safe, God
bless, Ask open