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On What Up? Everybody. Welcome
to another episode of Let's Ask Paul,

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the podcast where you get to ask
me Paul Abernathy anything you want about the

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National Electrical Code. All you got
to do is go to Paul Abernathy dot

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com. It's a free service sponsored
by Wicks and all you got to do

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is put in your brief information about
you, your email, your name,

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and then post your question. Be
very descriptive. Make sure you tell me

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the code cycle that your questions about, and just click that submit button and

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it will come to me and if
selected, it will be on an upcoming

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podcast much like today's as well.
We will respond in an email if it's

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not discussed on a podcast. Either
way, I'm gonna get you some answers

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before we get started today. I
do want to tell you we're sponsored today

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you're one of our students or you're
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right, So anyway, enough of
that, enough selling, Okay, all

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right, So today's topic, we're
going to talk about a question. It's

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going to go pretty quick, so
this is going to be a quick episode.

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So if you're cruising down the road, then you will like the fact

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that it's short. Some of you
like not long podcasts, but some of

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you not. They're like, dude, you're too long. Okay, yes,

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all right, so let's go here. Let me read this question.

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It was submitted. It says,
good morning, mister Abernethy. Well that's

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nice. It says it's me again
with another question. Hopefully you can help

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me out. So I upgraded a
service with new panel and meter box,

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et cetera for an existing home.
Okay, is the ANYCA code to is

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it any sea code? To also
install hardwire or interconnected smoke alarms? He

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says, smoke detectors. But by
the way, folks, when they're in

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a dwelling, it's smoke alarms.
When they're in a commercial building and they're

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interconnected to a central control center.
Then that's smoke detectors. So the smoke

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alarms are self alarming. They have
their alarms built in. Smoke detectors initiate

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back to the control panel, which
set off separate horns and strobes and all

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this other kind of stuff. So
I hear people call smoke detectors in a

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dwelling smoke. You know, they
call them smoke detectors when they really smoke

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alarms. Okay, does that make
sense? Okay, notugh of that.

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Get off that little box and get
back to the question. It says the

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existing smokes existing alarms were battery operated. I hope my question makes sense.

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Thanks again for your time. Okay, So there is absolutely nothing in the

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National Electrical Code that's going to dictate
that. Unlike things like surge protecting devices.

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When you do a service upgrade,
you've got to change that, or

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emergency disconnects that you've got to do
that when you change the service or change

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something like that, right, or
something to that nature. This is different.

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Nothing in far as the National Electrical
Code is going to require you to

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now go through this building and start
trying to rip out sheet rock and fish

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cables in walls or whatnot in order
to put these smoke alarms in all right,

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if they weren't required at the time
it was installed. They have battery

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operated ones. Now they made a
safety enhancement by putting the least battery ones

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in there, Okay. And so
at the end of the day, there's

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no requirement in the NEC for you
to have to install that, and that

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would be just too much to require
an electrician to do. Right, you're

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pricing it to do the service change. Okay. So you're making a dwelling

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unit a better Maybe it wasn't a
good capacity, maybe it was deteriorating system,

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and now you're making it better.
I mean you're enhancing it. You're

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making it better. There's no way
that you're going to be expected to go

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through this dwelling and change all of
these smoke alarms that are battery power to

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hardwired. Okay. So it tells
me this home was wired prior to the

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International Residential Code or whatever from the
ICC codes or whatever your state's using,

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could be n f PA one or
some other type of or n f PA

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five thousand or whatever these other standards
are. It sounds like this home was

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well be before that, so there's
nothing that require you to go through and

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that would be onerous to do.
God, don't give them any ideas,

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Okay, really don't give them any
ideas. So you know, if that's

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a choice, and if the owner
wants that, and you're willing to fish

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them through and get them in all
the locations that are typically required. If

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you're building a new house, right
and every bedroom in every room within ten

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feet of the bedroom one on each
level, you know what they want to

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pay you to do that, go
for it. But not doing a service

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change is absolutely no way I'm going
to have to price in going around and

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installing smoke alarms when they weren't required
at the time of that construction. Right.

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That's kind of like having receptacles in
bedrooms that don't meet the six or

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twelve maybe an older home, but
you do a service upgrade, and now

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they're going to make you go in
and meet the six twelve foot rule.

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Right, go follow everything at two
ten dot fifty two A hell'll know now

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if the owner wants it, if
they open up the rooms and they're remodeling

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and things like that, then then
your local jurisdiction could have other rules that

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force you to do certain things.
Remember, local jurisdictions can have other rules

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that they will impose on you.
Okay, And really the smoke alarms don't

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really fall under any c per se. Those fall under the International Residential Code

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or other building codes that type of
thing. It just so happens that they're

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powered by the goodness of US electricians
and the electricity that we magically install throughout

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the building, right, because that
we're wizards of that. But at the

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end of the day, no,
I am not gonna make I would not

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make you do that, and I
was ahead of jurisdictions, I would not

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make you do that. Now,
if you're doing a full remodel, you're

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opening up stuff, then there's a
certain level of percentage that some jurisdictions will

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say, if you're opening up a
room, a certain percentage or whatnot,

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that they're gonna want to enhance it
and say, look, get me a

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get me a smoke alarm in there, and those type of things. Okay,

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And of course the smoke alarm circuit
doesn't have to be by itself.

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Now, I know some jurisdictions dictate
now a little extra rule that says they

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have to be on their own dedicated
circuit, but that's not the general rule

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in the NEEC, so very common
smoke alarms are put on the circuit spare

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circuit that I might run up into
an attic and then I put all the

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smoke alarms on it, and that's
it. But not required that way,

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just to kind of to design.
You may design it that way, but

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at the end of the day,
you're just doing a service change now,

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other than putting in search protected devices
that are mandated on a service change,

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or maybe it's a you're in an
area where they're going to require the emergency

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disconnect outside and all those kind of
things. There are some allowances now for

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that where you don't have to do
that, so make sure you check the

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code. And I don't know which
cycle you're on, so you get a

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little bit of relief from that in
twenty twenty three. But at the end

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of the day, to answer your
question, no, you did your job.

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You install the new service, you
install the meter box. You did

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what your job is. You're also, by the way, okay, another

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tidbit of information, you're not since
you're not changing any of those branch circuits.

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You're just simply putting a new panel. You're not going to have to

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upgrade anything to AFCI as well.
Okay, So that's the next question people

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always have for that. You're not
messing with the brand circuit, you're not

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extending it, you're doing it.
You're just simply changing a panel. And

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of course you haven't allowed us in
here. For as long as you're not

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extending something more than six feet,
then you can ignore all that. And

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again, obviously you're just doing a
panel change. You don't have to upgrade

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to aMCI. You don't. Okay, So that answers another question people sometimes

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submit to me. All right,
So that was a short once a day.

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This was a follow up. Actually
this individual ask a different question.

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Hopefully I helped him. I think
they I did, and they had a

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follow up question. And you two
can do that, folks. All you

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got to do is go to Paul
Abernathy dot com, submit your question through

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the free portal. It's sponsored by
Wicks. Appreciate WIS partnership and that I'm

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using that one way too much.
That's right. So Jesse will tell me

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one of my students. He will
say, Paul, it is time for

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you to upgrade your soundboard because this
is these sounds are getting old. Okay,

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well that's what I say to Jesse
every time he says that. All

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right, anyway, anyway, hopefully
that answered your question. Again. If

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you want to submit a question to
me, hey, my friends, feel

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free to do it. I am
about as approachable as any electrical educator can

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get. I serve on code making
Panels five and seventeen. I've written books

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on the National Electrical Code. I
started my academy years ago and it has

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gone to great success. We're helping
thousands of people learn the National Electrical Code.

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It's what I live for, it's
my passion, and I want to

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teach you the code as well.
So check out our website for some great

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courses, great quizzes, some database
quizzes there if you just want questions,

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we have so much to choose from
over on fasttracksystem dot com. Until next

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time, folks, stay safe,
God bless and again don't forget submit those

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questions both as nothing mask nothing