On What Up? Everybody. Welcome to another episode of Let's Ask Paul,
the podcast where you get to ask me Paul Abernathy anything you want about the
National Electrical Code. All you got to do is go to Paul Abernathy dot
com. It's a free service sponsored by Wicks and all you got to do
is put in your brief information about you, your email, your name,
and then post your question. Be very descriptive. Make sure you tell me
the code cycle that your questions about, and just click that submit button and
it will come to me and if selected, it will be on an upcoming
podcast much like today's as well. We will respond in an email if it's
not discussed on a podcast. Either way, I'm gonna get you some answers
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right, So anyway, enough of that, enough selling, Okay, all
right, So today's topic, we're going to talk about a question. It's
going to go pretty quick, so this is going to be a quick episode.
So if you're cruising down the road, then you will like the fact
that it's short. Some of you like not long podcasts, but some of
you not. They're like, dude, you're too long. Okay, yes,
all right, so let's go here. Let me read this question.
It was submitted. It says, good morning, mister Abernethy. Well that's
nice. It says it's me again with another question. Hopefully you can help
me out. So I upgraded a service with new panel and meter box,
et cetera for an existing home. Okay, is the ANYCA code to is
it any sea code? To also install hardwire or interconnected smoke alarms? He
says, smoke detectors. But by the way, folks, when they're in
a dwelling, it's smoke alarms. When they're in a commercial building and they're
interconnected to a central control center. Then that's smoke detectors. So the smoke
alarms are self alarming. They have their alarms built in. Smoke detectors initiate
back to the control panel, which set off separate horns and strobes and all
this other kind of stuff. So I hear people call smoke detectors in a
dwelling smoke. You know, they call them smoke detectors when they really smoke
alarms. Okay, does that make sense? Okay, notugh of that.
Get off that little box and get back to the question. It says the
existing smokes existing alarms were battery operated. I hope my question makes sense.
Thanks again for your time. Okay, So there is absolutely nothing in the
National Electrical Code that's going to dictate that. Unlike things like surge protecting devices.
When you do a service upgrade, you've got to change that, or
emergency disconnects that you've got to do that when you change the service or change
something like that, right, or something to that nature. This is different.
Nothing in far as the National Electrical Code is going to require you to
now go through this building and start trying to rip out sheet rock and fish
cables in walls or whatnot in order to put these smoke alarms in all right,
if they weren't required at the time it was installed. They have battery
operated ones. Now they made a safety enhancement by putting the least battery ones
in there, Okay. And so at the end of the day, there's
no requirement in the NEC for you to have to install that, and that
would be just too much to require an electrician to do. Right, you're
pricing it to do the service change. Okay. So you're making a dwelling
unit a better Maybe it wasn't a good capacity, maybe it was deteriorating system,
and now you're making it better. I mean you're enhancing it. You're
making it better. There's no way that you're going to be expected to go
through this dwelling and change all of these smoke alarms that are battery power to
hardwired. Okay. So it tells me this home was wired prior to the
International Residential Code or whatever from the ICC codes or whatever your state's using,
could be n f PA one or some other type of or n f PA
five thousand or whatever these other standards are. It sounds like this home was
well be before that, so there's nothing that require you to go through and
that would be onerous to do. God, don't give them any ideas,
Okay, really don't give them any ideas. So you know, if that's
a choice, and if the owner wants that, and you're willing to fish
them through and get them in all the locations that are typically required. If
you're building a new house, right and every bedroom in every room within ten
feet of the bedroom one on each level, you know what they want to
pay you to do that, go for it. But not doing a service
change is absolutely no way I'm going to have to price in going around and
installing smoke alarms when they weren't required at the time of that construction. Right.
That's kind of like having receptacles in bedrooms that don't meet the six or
twelve maybe an older home, but you do a service upgrade, and now
they're going to make you go in and meet the six twelve foot rule.
Right, go follow everything at two ten dot fifty two A hell'll know now
if the owner wants it, if they open up the rooms and they're remodeling
and things like that, then then your local jurisdiction could have other rules that
force you to do certain things. Remember, local jurisdictions can have other rules
that they will impose on you. Okay, And really the smoke alarms don't
really fall under any c per se. Those fall under the International Residential Code
or other building codes that type of thing. It just so happens that they're
powered by the goodness of US electricians and the electricity that we magically install throughout
the building, right, because that we're wizards of that. But at the
end of the day, no, I am not gonna make I would not
make you do that, and I was ahead of jurisdictions, I would not
make you do that. Now, if you're doing a full remodel, you're
opening up stuff, then there's a certain level of percentage that some jurisdictions will
say, if you're opening up a room, a certain percentage or whatnot,
that they're gonna want to enhance it and say, look, get me a
get me a smoke alarm in there, and those type of things. Okay,
And of course the smoke alarm circuit doesn't have to be by itself.
Now, I know some jurisdictions dictate now a little extra rule that says they
have to be on their own dedicated circuit, but that's not the general rule
in the NEEC, so very common smoke alarms are put on the circuit spare
circuit that I might run up into an attic and then I put all the
smoke alarms on it, and that's it. But not required that way,
just to kind of to design. You may design it that way, but
at the end of the day, you're just doing a service change now,
other than putting in search protected devices that are mandated on a service change,
or maybe it's a you're in an area where they're going to require the emergency
disconnect outside and all those kind of things. There are some allowances now for
that where you don't have to do that, so make sure you check the
code. And I don't know which cycle you're on, so you get a
little bit of relief from that in twenty twenty three. But at the end
of the day, to answer your question, no, you did your job.
You install the new service, you install the meter box. You did
what your job is. You're also, by the way, okay, another
tidbit of information, you're not since you're not changing any of those branch circuits.
You're just simply putting a new panel. You're not going to have to
upgrade anything to AFCI as well. Okay, So that's the next question people
always have for that. You're not messing with the brand circuit, you're not
extending it, you're doing it. You're just simply changing a panel. And
of course you haven't allowed us in here. For as long as you're not
extending something more than six feet, then you can ignore all that. And
again, obviously you're just doing a panel change. You don't have to upgrade
to aMCI. You don't. Okay, So that answers another question people sometimes
submit to me. All right, So that was a short once a day.
This was a follow up. Actually this individual ask a different question.
Hopefully I helped him. I think they I did, and they had a
follow up question. And you two can do that, folks. All you
got to do is go to Paul Abernathy dot com, submit your question through
the free portal. It's sponsored by Wicks. Appreciate WIS partnership and that I'm
using that one way too much. That's right. So Jesse will tell me
one of my students. He will say, Paul, it is time for
you to upgrade your soundboard because this is these sounds are getting old. Okay,
well that's what I say to Jesse every time he says that. All
right, anyway, anyway, hopefully that answered your question. Again. If
you want to submit a question to me, hey, my friends, feel
free to do it. I am about as approachable as any electrical educator can
get. I serve on code making Panels five and seventeen. I've written books
on the National Electrical Code. I started my academy years ago and it has
gone to great success. We're helping thousands of people learn the National Electrical Code.
It's what I live for, it's my passion, and I want to
teach you the code as well. So check out our website for some great
courses, great quizzes, some database quizzes there if you just want questions,
we have so much to choose from over on fasttracksystem dot com. Until next
time, folks, stay safe, God bless and again don't forget submit those
questions both as nothing mask nothing