Speaker 1: Welcome to the Master of the NEC podcast, the ultimate
destination for anyone passionate about the electrical trade. Whether you're
a season electrician, an eager apprentice, or just someone who
wants to dive deep into the world of electrical work,
you've come to the right place.
Speaker 2: Join your host, Paul.
Speaker 1: Abernavi, a true authority in the industry with over thirty
eight years of trade experience, as he electrifies your mind
with in depth discussions, expertips, and valuable insights.
Speaker 2: That will keep you ahead of the curve.
Speaker 1: Each episode, Paul will illuminate the complexities of the trade
de code, the National Electrical Code, and share the latest
industry trends, all while empowering you to take your electrical
career to the next level. So gear up, plug in,
and get ready to supercharge your knowledge because with the
Master of the NEEC podcast, the power is in your hands.
Speaker 2: Now get ready.
Speaker 1: Here is your host, Paul Abernavi.
Speaker 3: What up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of Mastering VN YOUC.
My name is Paul labernanthy your host. As always, thanks
for joining me on this podcast. Today's episode, we're gonna
be looking at the structure of the twenty twenty six
edition of the National Electrical Code. For many of you,
this won't be out for a while. It is available
in link right now. The publishing of it probably will
come over the next couple months and you'll start getting
your copies.
Speaker 2: You get your first edition, may.
Speaker 3: Have some errors, they'll make changes, but again the body
of it is ready right now on link if you
want to get it on your phone and start taking
a sneak peek at.
Speaker 2: What it's going to look like.
Speaker 3: Now, for many of you out there, this said, you
know what I'm going to be on the twenty twenty
six edition for quite a while. Why do I need
to look at it? And I think the real reason
that we start to look at code changes or things
in the code is because we want to see where
things are going, because it also helps to clarify where
we've been. In other words, if there's an argument over
a certain condition, a certain application, there's a high probability
that in many cases those very controversial topics that we've
talked about through the years gets clarified as the additions
go on and in code panels address certain issues. And
of course we all know that the twenty twenty six
edition is kind of the start of a new direction
or new restructuring, if you will, have the National Electrical Code,
where we're all gearing up for what we've heard that's
going to happen in the twenty twenty nine edition, but
right here in the twenty twenty six we start seeing
some things move to other articles and jump around into
different chapters, and things just change a little bit.
Speaker 2: So we want to.
Speaker 3: Talk a little bit about about that today and kind
of give you a little a little warm up to it.
Speaker 2: Obviously, we're going to be doing quite.
Speaker 3: A few videos and stuff on these changes and looking
at certain aspects that have changed, so that you know,
you can just kind of be aware of it so
it doesn't take you by surprise when when states do
adopt the twenty twenty six, you already head of the curve.
Speaker 2: And in most cases still going.
Speaker 3: To be applicable to twenty twenty three and in some
cases even twenty twenty that we talk about it, but
I just think it's important that we stay up to date.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: So all right, don't let's start out by talking code arrangement,
because this seems to be one of the things that
can get quite confusing for folks. Is I mean, we're
leading up to a major change that's coming in twenty
twenty nine, and so there are some certain adjustments that
have to be made in the twenty twenty six to
prepare us for that, to prepare all the users for that.
And it's going to be different, and it's going to
be a new kind of formatting. Things are going to
be moved around a little bit. So we're just trying
to set the tone for that. But that's what's coming now.
As always, you've got ninety dot three. It basically explains
the organization of the NEC. So you go look at
ninety dot three and it makes it very clear that
chapters one through four apply broadly throughout the NEC.
Speaker 2: They're general requirements.
Speaker 3: Okay, so if you're flipping through something and you're in
two fifty, you're in three ten for conductors, you're you're
in the body of chapters one through four. It's probably
going to pertain to the vast majority of things that
you do on a day in and day out basis.
But then of course you'll run into specialty stuff in
chapters five, six, and seven, for example six eighty in
pools spas, hot tubs. They they modify or supplement something
that may be the general rule, and let's say Article
two fifty, so it does a little sum some does
a little something extra. And so this happens also with
hazardous locations. Five oh one, five oh two, five oh three.
You have your general rule, then now you have some
modifications that can be made or some type of change
to the general rule. Now, as long as we understanding
how that hierarchy goes, then you're going to be in
a good place. Right, So that's the first thing that
we want to make sure that.
Speaker 2: We're all aware of.
Speaker 3: Now, what about this arrangement? What are we talking about
in the code? So many of you are familiar with
the code. I'm talking twenty twenty six right now, but
it is generally the exact same concepts regardless of the
twenty twenty, twenty seventeen, twenty twenty three. You have nine
different chapters. Chapter one being general, so general rules, general requirements.
That's typically we're going to see one ten. Now in
the twenty twenty six edition, that's where you're going to
see calculations one twenty because they apply broadly throughout the NEEC.
Speaker 2: It's the calculations.
Speaker 3: It's what you do so that it made sense it
that it gets moved to to chapter one, and we'll
look at some of the some of the different and
changes as we work through this co change series here.
Then you got chapter two, which is Wiring and Protection,
Chapter three which is wiring methods and Materials. And again
chapter three is going to cover things like your rigid metal,
intermediate metal, non metallic, rigid PVC, non metallic sheet cable,
trade cable. All those type of things are going to
be covered in chapter three with their own specific articles
within that chapter. And then you're going to get to
chapter four, which is Equipment for general use, right, so
where we also see for twenty two for example, appliances,
things like that four hundred okay chords, right. And then
of course you get into chapter five, which is Special
Occupancies and Locations, right, so you'll get into, you know,
certain things like five twenty five. You'll get into all
kinds of these you know, specialty things again five hundred,
five oh one, five oh two, five oh three, those
are hazardous classified locations, so a little bit of special
occupancy driven and or special type of locations. And then
chapter six is specific equipment, and that's where we talk about.
Chapter six is pools six eighty things like that, okay,
and then chapter seven is specific conditions and systems. Chapter
eight is communication systems. Now it's broken into outside and
entering the building. And of course Chapter nine is our tables,
and we have a lot of various tables that we
will look at all the time. Chapter nine, Table eight
for conductor properties, table three and table four, table five,
you know, all this kind of different stuff that we'll
go to when referenced within the NEC and so all
of those things are how we're dealing it.
Speaker 2: Now. We also have what's called informative anxes.
Speaker 3: Now, these informative anxes, which again many people want to
reference these.
Speaker 2: It goes all the way down.
Speaker 3: To l okay, So you have an informative NX A, B, C, D, E,
F on on on on on all the way down
to L and L in this edition is really important
because it is it is just information, but informative anx L.
Let you see the proposed organization of what the twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Nine edition is going to look like.
Speaker 3: That's big because it gives you that peak into this
is what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: This is what it's gonna be talking about.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now some of the things that we're looking at,
all these different anxes, remembering that these annexes are just
good information, and a good inspector knows that an informative
ANX is not a code requirement.
Speaker 2: Okay, it's not.
Speaker 3: It's it's good information. Now it made your main with
code and might mirror code. It might give an example
like informed of ANXD, which gives some example calculations. They're
gonna walk hand in hand with it. But you don't
have anybody enforcing anything based on these informative anexes. They're
just there for great information and I like that. I
like informative anxes giving us additional guidance. Right, So you know,
for example, recommend tightening and torquing values that come out
of UL for eighty six A forty six B.
Speaker 2: Well that's in there. It's informed of ANXI. I like that.
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's what you got to keep in mind.
So that's how our structure is broken down. Okay, Now
in twenty twenty six, we've got to understand a couple
key things that are taking place.
Speaker 2: Now, you remember.
Speaker 3: When we've always said in this structure where you've got
chapters one through four, and I might have just said
it one through four are the general rule, and then five,
six and seven supplement and modified chapters one through seven.
That's the way it's been up until the twenty twenty
six edition of the NEEC. So chapter eight used to
be you know, it's a standalone, standalone and forced. It
wasn't germane to the typical chapters one through seven. Well
that changes for the twenty twenty six. Now eight moves in.
So the language in ninety nine three arrangement again says
chapter one through four is general requirements, and then it
says five through eight may supplement or modify the requirements
in chapters one through eight.
Speaker 2: So eight has been pulled into the fold.
Speaker 3: So it is very much a part of the what
was previously one through four, which is general, five through
seven may supplement or modify, and eight was a standalone body.
Now it is pulled into the code arrangement, So not
stand alone anymore.
Speaker 2: It's a part of it. Okay.
Speaker 3: Now, while chapter eight still appears in the twenty twenty
six again it's it's not exempt anymore from one through seven.
It is subject to all those modifications. So that's the
first thing you want to try to keep in mind,
because again a lot of people in their transition are
going to think, then that's independent. I don't have to
meet certain requirements. Un let's referenced. Okay from chapter eight,
that's not the case anymore. Okay, keeping keeping that in mind, now,
the code is broken down into various articles. Y'all are
aware that you have different articles Arcle two fifty, you
have article three thirty.
Speaker 2: Four pH non mentality, sheath cable, you have.
Speaker 3: You have all these different articles, and then within those
articles you have what's called parts you part one, part two,
part three, part four, and a lot of the wired
and case for example, it's just three parts, but you
take pools, spas and hot tubs for example six eighty
you got seven parts. I mean you got you got
a lot of parts. Speaking of shameless plug, we got
Vince Delacrosse coming in the studio in a couple of weeks.
We're gonna be doing the pool, spas and hot tubs.
Will be looking at article six eighty for for the
twenty twenty six codes. So I'm excited about that because
we're gonna dig into a lot of changes. Uh that
took place, and we'll probably have some podcasts with Vince
as well, talking about what, you know, what he does
and all the stuff that he does for the industry,
because he does amazing stuff for the industry. So we're
go'll be talking about that as well, So make sure
you catch some of those episodes. Uh, they'll be on
the same platform as this is, so you won't miss it.
But uh, we look forward to to Vince coming into
the studio. So you've got the you know, we got
the parts, and then of those parts, you have what's
called sections.
Speaker 2: Each section would.
Speaker 3: Be like dot three, dot five dots, you know, dot
a dot, whatever it is. Those are the various sections.
So you have articles, you have parts, you have sections, right,
and then you got you know, a bunch of different
things like you got informational notes. Again, informational notes which
years and years and years ago. Now we're moving on
we're called fine print notes, but they're not that anymore. Right,
we've changed, We've made a progression as well, right, and
then of course you'll have exceptions, and exceptions be exceptions
to the general rule. So you've got various basic rule
and that's going to be you know, stated in standard type,
and then of course you'll have exceptions, which typically are
in italics in the code so that you can see
what the exception may be. But that's, you know, pretty
much the norm that's been the way it's been. And
then we have footnotes that are going to be in
the code. Okay, so keep that in mind. Now, general requirements,
we're going to be looking and you know, some of
the changes that we're going to be having or what
we're going to be seeing when we come through the
NEC is there is going to be quite a few
changes that took place in Chapter one that are significant.
Electric the calculations obviously went from two twenty to one
to twenty. Energy management systems that's moved to one thirty,
so some significant changes. But again that's general. Because those
calculations are general, they apply broadly, so it makes sense
that it should be in the General rather than in
Chapter two.
Speaker 2: It makes sense. It aligns a little bit better.
Speaker 3: And you know, so remembering that one ten is general
requirements for electrical installations that you know throughout the NEC,
it's general applications to the various articles, unless of course
they're modified in some form or fashion by some other article. Okay,
only one twenty is going to provide the now from
two twenty to one to twenty. It's going to provide
the general basis for our calculations, and that's going to
be for calculating brand, circuit, feeder and service loads.
Speaker 2: It's it's just a realignment, that's really all. And it
makes more sense.
Speaker 3: Energy management system is going to be a one thirty
that type of thing.
Speaker 2: Okay, just some changes for that.
Speaker 3: And Article three hundred is going to be an introductory
article for now for chapter three, and it's going to
provide general requirements for wiring methods and materials.
Speaker 2: Okay, but again it can be modified.
Speaker 3: It can be changed based on the other articles that
are within chapter three specific to certain types of wiring
methods that are going to say, look for this type
of wiring method you can do a little something different
than the general rule. So it's important to make sure
that we understand how the structure is going to flow
and when something can modify, when something can supplement something
makes sense.
Speaker 2: Okay. Just want to make sure we're all on board.
Speaker 3: As we start to dig deeper into some of the
significant changes that are taking place in the twenty twenty
six edition of the National Letrical Code, not just the
fact that it's preparing us for a new direction, right,
little new direction of how it's going to go.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the questions that they come up.
Speaker 3: Quite often and becomes really a big debate is terminology.
So Article one hundred is going to obviously cover and
we made that shift in the twenty twenty three where
all of the definitions got moved for the most part
over into Article one hundred. Gives us one clean place
to go look for the various definitions and definitions are
extremely important, especially if maneuvering through the NEEC. But one
of the things that people ask from time to time
is what if a specific definition or specific term is
not covered in the National Electrical Code, where do I
go to get a definition for that? Maybe a generic, typical,
general used definition. Right, Well, we know that Article one
hundred contains those, you know, the definitions that are basically
extremely important for the applications and use of the NEC.
Speaker 2: We knew that, you know, we teach people that.
Speaker 3: These are it's really Article one hundred. The definitions are
not designed to give us very generic terms. These are
very technical terms and definitions, right, And so we have
to understand that there's going to be a place where
we have to be able to get some of the
very generic terminology in order to be able to use
that document.
Speaker 2: Sometimes, so.
Speaker 3: While it's not really stated in article one hundred, you
use the Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary is referenced, okay, And
of course the building codes and things like that. None
of this is stated in the NEC. But that is
the general and that is the method that is promoted
by an FPA. And the concept is to use for
definitions that are not specifically Germane to the NEC, they
would be using the Merriam Webster's latest edition, the Collegiate Dictionary,
and that's what would be used. So if you're looking
at a term, you're like, this is some obscure term.
It's general, but it's obviously not going to be covered
by the NEC. Where would you go? That's where you'd go. Okay,
Just so everybody's clear. Now some of you are going
to get into this and start getting your your your
electronic versions of the NEC or to start looking at it,
and I encourage it. Start looking at the changes, getting
familiar with them, seeing you know, maybe things that you've
argued in the past, and you're saying, dude, I want
to go see if something's changed, if something in what
I've been arguing for years has finally changed, and does
the new NEC address that? Well, if you're if you're
flipping through the NEC, you'll see some inns kang the
letter N in the left margin, and if it's just
an inn, you know that it's new. Okay, in the
left margin, if you see an end that is shaded,
then it's treated as new rule, but it's been relocated.
In other words, it it it's new to this area.
Speaker 2: Makes sense.
Speaker 3: So when you're looking at the code, I mean, I
guess the key thing for me is focus in on
the end for new and read it fresh, right, kind
of read it fresh and and kind of gotta get
it kind of a feel that it's that it's fresh
and it's kind of a fresh look that that type
of approach, that's that's kind of how I would address
you seeing the D in the left margins. Now up front,
let's go on and just I mean, let's knock out
the new articles that have been added to the twenty
twenty six Okay, so you're clear on what's new. We
have a new two hundred and six, which is remote
control and signaling circuits. You know, originally it was three
hundred twenty six. Now it's two zero six. Okay, that's
a move. We have brand circuits over one thousand volts
and that is to sixty five.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now that's going to confuse a lot of people because
that used to be Part three for feeders okay, for
feeders that are over one thousand volts.
Speaker 2: Okay, excuse me.
Speaker 3: Brand circuits that are over one thousand volts that used
to be in two thirty five, which was part two
is now to sixty five. And of course feeders that
are over one thousand volts is now to sixty six. Okay,
So that can be confusing for folks because that used
to be into two thirty five.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now two thirty five has been deleted now obviously because
it's been broken into their own articles.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that'd be a shift for people to see that.
Speaker 3: But again, this is this is kind of aligning with
the new structure, which again you can go look at
in your twenty twenty six if you have the electronic version,
you can go to informed of Annex L.
Speaker 2: I believe I.
Speaker 3: Said, and look and see what it's going to look like.
But I'm sure they'll still be evolving, because that's another
that's a cycle away.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Now we just now in the twenty twenty six are
ready to release it. So again there's going to be
work that gets done to that.
Speaker 2: So uh.
Speaker 3: And then of course you have again that was two
sixty six for feeders over one thousand volts. Then you
have two sixty seven, which is outside branch and feeders
over one thousand. Again, this used to be part four
of two thirty five, which again uh is that and
also deletes three ninety five. Heay for those that remember
three ninety five that was overhead out outdoor overhead conductors
over this, So now it kind of aligns.
Speaker 2: Itself a little bit in how that's going to be done.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, Next we'd be looking at is UH services
over one thousand volts?
Speaker 2: That was part five of article two thirty five.
Speaker 3: Well, obviously two thirty five is gone now, so just
keeping in that pathat it is now to sixty eight, right,
And with that, and I'm in code panel five and
we were all for expanding out grounding and bonding specifics.
Speaker 2: A lot of it was a cut and paste.
Speaker 3: From regular two fifty, but there are some nuances to
over one thousand volts that we wanted to capture, and
so it used to be in Part ten of Article
two fifty. But now grounding and bonding for over one
thousand volts, okay, not your every day application. You're for
eighty two seventy seven to forty one twenty your normal
day and day out building wire stuff typically. Okay, that's
two fifty, but we do have a two seventy now
that's going to be for grounding and bonding over.
Speaker 2: One thousand volts. Okay.
Speaker 3: Next is two sixty four electric self propelled vehicles to
kind of separate it away from six twenty five, which
is more about the ev charging aspect of it, the
equipment and more addressing the self propelled electric self propelled
vehicles in six twenty four.
Speaker 2: So a kind of.
Speaker 3: A splitting up of six twenty five, if you will,
and trying to create a six twenty four that's more
dedicated to the vehicle aspect of it versus the charger
or charging aspect of it. Kind of what took place
with that, we have a seven to twenty. It's getting
added and that is general requirements for limited energy systems,
wiring methods and materials. Right, so seven twenty again limited
energy systems. We have seven twenty one, which is power
sources for limited energy systems. We have seven twenty two
limited energy cable requirements.
Speaker 2: Right. So again all about limited energy is the.
Speaker 3: The class two s, class threes, all these type of
things you know we have. Also if you remember last cycle,
we had the introduction of the class four fault managed systems.
If you've never watched any of those videos over on
YouTube for volt server and you want to learn what's
the technology that's that's down the road that's coming, it's interesting.
Go take a moment obviously after my podcast, don't do
it now, don't leave now, and go look at those videos.
It's very interesting technology. So that's your homework. Your homework
is to go look at some of those volt server
videos over on YouTube. Interesting technology.
Speaker 2: I will say, we.
Speaker 3: Have a seven to twenty three that's being introduced. That's raceway,
cable routing assemblies and cable trays four limited energy systems.
So not only you're going to deal with the sources
of this limited energy, the cable requirements of this listed energy,
the general requirements for limited energy, but now you're gonna
have requirements that are specific to raceway, cable routing, assemblies,
cable trays, YadA, YadA, YadA for limited energy systems. Seven
two over voltage protection for limited energy, and of course
seven point fifty which used to be energy management, that
got moved to one thirty to make way for seven
fifty for grounding and bonding for limited energy. So you
see the pattern here, limited energy expansion, those type of things. Now,
with that said, some things had to be relocated. And
again a couple of things that we relocate was obviously
seven seventy, which was optical fiber cables. Well, that's a
no brainer because that gets relocated over into seven twenty
two because that is a limited energy cable and that's
there's limited energy cable requirements, so it makes sense. So
seven seventy gets absorbed into the new seven twenty two
and it's going to be part seven by the way.
Speaker 2: In that right.
Speaker 3: That also makes the way for the communication circuits in
eight oh five to get you know, relocated to seven
twenty two, seven forty two and seven fifty, right, because
you're grounding and bonding requirements your over voltage protection for
this limited energy and of course obviously we're talking communication circuits,
so we're also going to be talking about limited energy
cable requirements. And of course, as always you got seven
to twenty which is basically the again the general requirements
for these limited energy systems. Okay, so you see how
it's kind of kind of rolling, if you will. And
of course eight forty, which is premise powered broadband communication systems,
also gets deleted in this addition to the NEEC and
gets absorbed into the other specific articles that type of thing,
so makes sense. So it's kind of the alignment. So
that's the new stuff that's coming, uh in the new articles,
and I fully get it. You may pause this podcast,
you may rewind it back and listen to some of
these again and see what's what's coming. But that's what
you got. That's that's your new articles and what's being deleted.
Speaker 2: Okay, Now some of the things I want to tell
you about.
Speaker 3: The listing requirements. So for twenty twenty six, there's there's
been a significant change in the structure of DOT two,
which is your listing requirements and more germane really to
various wiring methods that do have a listing requirement wiring
methods typically or you know all of them, you know, rigid, intermediate,
AC mc key, but all those are listed products and
under dot to before when it was required than be listed.
Now they're going to be listed and identified. But then
it kind of goes one step forward. And I'll use
ac cable as an example. So three twenty dot two
for example, it's just convenient to use it. It says
the following shall be listed and identified. So you've got
ac cable. That's not a big change, okay, because it
was already required to be listed and identified and it's
ac cable. Next is probably where we're going to see
the biggest changes. Cable ties, staples, straps, and hangars have
to be listed and identified, obviously listed and identified for
use with ac cable, not just any strap that you
can find anymore.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the.
Speaker 3: Thing to remember moving forward in twenty twenty six, as
that staples now cable ties were required to be listed prior.
In many of these uh cable sections or these cable articles,
they were required to be listed and for their specific
use okay, securing and supporting. But now you're seeing the
straps the hangars, the staples.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And when it says listed and identified means that it
is listed and identified for use with obviously the wiring
method in question, which is a C cable. So this
makes it very clear that you don't use an E
M T strap to secure a C cable just because
it works.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Also a C cable fittings used for connecting boxes, cables
to boxes, cabinets or other equipment all have to be
listed and identified.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So that is where we're going to see Dot two
going as being it's it's more specific now in the
way that it's that it wants to address it. So
keeping you know, keeping that in mind. And again, by
the way, this this is throughout. That wasn't just three
twenty Uh, it's the same thing when you go to
three thirty dot two, three thirty four.
Speaker 2: It's the same concept. And you know, the argument was,
you know, do you list.
Speaker 3: A staple, Well, there is a standard for that, and
so because there is a standard for that, it just
was maybe not followed that much. But now the manufacturers
will and they will and you will see supports and
straps and hangars and cable ties and all this other
type stuff getting evaluated through a third party now so
that you can use it with the product.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So that's where you're going to see some of the
some of the changes that take take place in that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now in many cases, you're gonna also now run into
a dot three, which is the reconditioned equipment. Okay, And
I'm using example here. Three twelve dot three is reconditioned equipment.
Of course, we know three twelve is dealing with cabinets,
cut out boxes, meter socket enclosures.
Speaker 2: So I just using that as a an example.
Speaker 3: And when you go look at that, you'll see an
N in the margin in the left margin.
Speaker 2: So it's reconditioned equipment.
Speaker 3: So if you look at it, you're going to see
that what can be reconditioned in what can't be, for example,
boxes cabinets, cutout boxes. You'll see that there's a three
twelve dot three A in A B. And you'll notice
that A says permitted to be installed and B says
not permitted to be installed.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now A is very vague because it says reserved online
when I'm looking at the twenty twenty six edition in link. Okay,
But more telling is you look at what the not
permitted to be installed. It says, the installation of the
following reconditioned equipment shall not be permitted cabinets, cabinet cutout boxes,
cabinet meter socket enclosures. So you cannot use reconditioned cabinets
cut out boxes.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And then this is big because there's a lot of
people out there that use the reconditioned equipment or they
have some cabinets sitting around or whatnot like that, and
it makes it very clear that you're not going to
be reconditioning them, you're not going to be re using them.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the more and more.
Speaker 3: That the that this comes in a line, it's going
to tell you certain things that you just that you
just can't recondition. Now, we already were there what was
what was could be reconditioned, it wasn't. But this is
just going on a little bit more of a new provisions,
but to specifically address certain things. Okay, So I'm not
I'm not totally opposed to this this concept. It's just
it's being very specific what is permitted and what is
not permitted to be reconditioned. And again, it makes sense
for us if we're going to go down that avenue
of what you can and can't reuse, which, by the way,
a lot of this started.
Speaker 2: A lot of this thoughts.
Speaker 3: About reconditioned equipment and what can be used was after Katrina,
when we had all of that New Orleans all that flooding,
and then equipment started migrating its way as being replaced,
and then people would say, well, let's just dry it
out and reuse it, and it found its way up
north into Texas and other places, and that became a
problem because the equipment would fail and there was no
checks and balances on it and things like that. So
it was really important to ask the manufacturers to step
up and say, okay, of your products, I mean, these
are your products.
Speaker 2: You know them better than anybody.
Speaker 3: What really can be reconditioned and what really can't be
Like a GFCI AFCI for example, device that is not
something that is reconditionable. So you're like, eh, it's not
not not something you're just you're just not going to
recondition You're just going to replace it. And so that one,
even though that one's a bad example, because that should
be common sense because of electronics and whatnot. We still
needed a little more guidance on that. So I'm all
for this structure change because as an electrician, I just
tell me what I can reuse and when I can't,
that that's all I want to know that.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: So get the manufacturers involved so I can look at
something and say, oh, well, crap, good, I can't reuse it.
Speaker 2: Fine, I mean, just a new one that makes sense
to me.
Speaker 3: Okay, But I think the biggest one, I think that
the biggest of what we're going to run into is
in three fourteen dot three. When you're looking at they
not permitted to be installed. You know, three fourteen dot
three A says permitted to be installed and says reserved. Okay,
but if you look at the not permitted to be
installed basically, and this is going to be a shocker
for many of you out there, the manufacturers have stated,
whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it,
whether you say it's just because they want you to
buy a new equipment, you know what, let's just ignore that,
and it says that not permitted to reuse or recondition
outlet boxes, device boxes, pull boxes, junction boxes, conduit bodies,
fittings and handhold enclosures. None of that can be reconditioned.
So really it's going to say that anything that puts
one of those boxes, even in their associated fittings, under exposure,
whether it's flooding, whether it's whatever it is, whatever condition
of use may may cause something to have to be
reconditioned or cleaned up or whatever, then you can't reuse it.
Speaker 2: This was huge.
Speaker 3: I mean this would be huge in Texas because I
don't tell you how many times I'd go into city
and you'd have inspections and you go out in the
county and people are using old crap that wouldn't pass
in the city.
Speaker 2: Well, now it's cross board. You're not going to use
any of these things.
Speaker 3: You don't have, you don't you know, no need to
save your outlet boxes, no need to save your device,
although at the end of the day, I don't know
who would ever know, you know what I'm saying, if
you're just using old nail ups or whatnot.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying.
Speaker 3: But it's very very generic, and how it states it,
it makes it very clear. Reconditioned equipment installed in the
following the installation of the following reconditioned equipment shall not
be permitted outlet boxes, device boxes, pull boxes, junction boxes,
conduit bodies, fittings.
Speaker 2: And handhold covers. All of that.
Speaker 3: Now, obviously, the savvy code person is going to say, well, Paul,
we I guess when you read that, you got to
go look at the definition of reconditioned equipment and okay,
so we'll go look at that, and it says what
is reconditioned equipment. It's electro mechanical systems, COMMA equipment, apparatus,
or components that are restored to operating condition. This process
differs from normal servicing of equipment that remained within a
facility or replaced on a list of listing replacement of
listed equipment on a one to one basis.
Speaker 2: So for me, it's.
Speaker 3: About trying to take equipment, clean it up, put it
back in service.
Speaker 2: That to me is a reconditioning issue.
Speaker 3: Right, It's not for me a box that's a listed box,
and again not all boxes are required to be listed.
Speaker 2: Okay, keep that in mind.
Speaker 3: But you have a piece of equipment and in some
way try to re condition it due to some exposure
or something that's been exposed to that's not that's a
no no, okay, But I would argue, and again I'm
always controversial, a nail up box is a nail up
box and there's really nothing to recondition about it.
Speaker 2: If you got one and you reuse it, I don't
have a problem with it.
Speaker 3: But my problem with this is you're going to have
possibly maybe potential of hj's trying to bring this up,
especially if they see a junction box, for example, that
has plugs in it where it was used somewhere else
and it's now it's being used in another location. That
could be an issue for that jurisdiction, for that inspector.
He could raise that issue and say, well, that's reconditioned. Well, no,
maybe repurposed doesn't necessarily mean it's reconditioned. So I think
we're going to have to have some you know, there's
some flexibility.
Speaker 2: Now. Obviously the intent here was.
Speaker 3: For critical devices like I mean, GFCIs, AFCIS fuses things
like that. Obviously we don't want to recondition those, rebuild
them from one state to another state, and re implement
them when they're clearly it says in the code that
they cannot be reconditioned.
Speaker 2: So I don't want to blur the line there.
Speaker 3: But when you have three fourteen dot three stating things
like you can't recondition junction boxes, we have to understand, well, okay,
what is the line. If I'm using it in one
job and I take it out and I put it
in my truck and I reuse it on another job,
that's not necessarily reconditioning it. It's repurposing it. So again,
I just on reason I throw this out there is
because I don't want it to become the language become
a problematic issue for enforcement and contractors. Okay, that type
of thing. You get what I'm saying. It'd be very different.
For example, if the box is being used in a
location where it's submerged in a flood or something like that,
then you're cleaning it and all that in order to
reuse it. That's reconditioning and that you're not supposed to do. Okay,
that you can't do. So I don't want to. I
don't want to get people confused. If I've just taken
some nail up boxes in the house and I'm storing
them in my truck because I did a remodel, and
I want to reuse a nail up box and the
box is perfectly fine. I'm not really reconditioning and I'm
repurposing it. It didn't lose any listing, or if it
was listed at all, you get what I'm saying. So
I don't want there to be a confusion with that one.
And hell, I might not have done very good job.
I might have confused you anyway. So that wasn't my goal.
That wasn't what I was supposed to do. But hell,
I'm not perfect. So all right, Now, there are some
terms that are throughout the NEC that have been debated
and confusing and for clarity and things like that through
the years that we're going to try to to clarify.
And one of those was brand circuit over current protected devices.
That's confusing because it's used on feeders, it's used on
brand circuits, right, it's used on service conductors, it's used
on other equipment. And so the term to use brand
circuit overcurrent protected devices the way the code uses it
was very confusing.
Speaker 2: So how about this, how about we just say, look, why.
Speaker 3: Don't we just call them over current protected devices OCPD
the acronym and just remove the reference to brand circuits, feeders,
service conductors, equipment, just remove all that.
Speaker 2: Why not just do all that?
Speaker 3: And so that's what took place in the twenty twenty
sixth edition of the NEEC and broadly y and so
we also had to figure there needs to be a
way to make this very clear for the end user.
And this is what I like about the way that
the code is trying to go. And again I was
strongly against at the beginning the twenty twenty nine change
perspective of how it was going to go, propose whatever,
and then I got more in looking at it and
then saw what we're going to do in twenty twenty six.
But looking like we're setting the stage and it seems
to me, in my opinion, that we're making an effort
to make the ANYC.
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe just maybe a little more easier to understand,
you know what I'm saying, just a little more easier
to understand.
Speaker 3: The reason I say this is because now when you
take the brand circuit overcurrent protective device and you say, okay,
we're going to break that down now so that we
can be clear that these things, these overcurrent devices apply
to branch, eat or service. They don't need to be
called brand circuit of it. That's confusing. But when I
do that, I need to tell you, Okay, well, what
are overcurrent protected devices? Now we got two forty dot six,
which gives you these standard ratings of these overcurrent protected devices,
but we needed to add something else that said, okay,
what are the overcurrent protected devices? So two forty dot
seven was born, and that is new and it basically
says unless permitted elsewhere in the code, and that usually
is language for unless it changes it somewhere else in
the code. This is a general rule. This is what
you're going to follow. It says overcurrent protected devices are
oucpds for protecting brand circuit feeders and service conductors and
equipment shall be one of the following And now it
gives you a list. A list item makes more sense.
You want to know what an overcurrent protected device is? Okay,
it's number one. It's a molded case circuit breaker, standard
break you see in your panel every day of the week.
You have low voltage power circuit breakers typically have a
little bit higher opacities on them, but again they're just
they're just low voltage. Okay, eight thousand volts less type
of applications, low voltage power circuit breakers. They're considered overcurrent
protected devices. Great, great solid state and solid state hybrid
circuit breakers. Okay, they're overcurrent protected devices. Okay, fuses class
C C A C B C C C FG n J.
Excuse me, h K L R T. I think I
said end. There's no end there, but anyway you give me,
it's class H class J.
Speaker 2: They're all overcurrent protected devices.
Speaker 3: And we knew they were, but it's now with a
little less confusion because they're just they're just overcurrented. Get
away the the argument. When we had to tell somebody
that the breaker that was protecting a feeder was a
branch circuit overcur protected device, then everybody would go, well, shit,
I thought that was a feeder, you know, and it's
maybe it may not be. If it's just going to
something like a range, then it's still just a brand circuit.
But everybody sees that two pole breaker and thinks, oh,
that's a feeder. No, it's still a brand circuit. However,
you still have a breaker that could feed a remote
distribution panel and it still would have been called a
branch circuit overcurrent protected device. But no, it's a feeder
and it's protecting the conductors downstream to another panel. So
it's an overcurrent protected device. It's not necessarily a branch
circuit overcurbit. That's the way it was called. It avoids
a lot of confusion, really does. It's a great change,
by the way. I think it just I'm all for clarity,
and I think it's a better clarity change. Also to
round it out, you know, you have Edison base to
screw in, Edison base Type C and Type S fuses
older style Edison based fuse screw ins, and then of
course it says other fuses of circuit breakers as suitable
for the application. That's a generic one that's going to
catch a lot of things. But again they're going to
be very clear moving forward. If they're a circuit breaker
and there for specific application, they're going to be still
that's their function. Then they're going to be an overcurrent
protected device if they're being used in that application. Okay,
so that's a number six is more of a catch
all if you will. Okay, so I like it. I'm
you know, it's one of those things that again makes
it very clear. Now, something you will notice that's missing
from this list is something called supplemental overcurrent protected devices,
which again is not going to be an overcurrent protected device.
Speaker 2: That's important because we talk.
Speaker 3: About bathrooms and you have supplemental overcurrent protection which aren't
under the same rules as you would have for the
overcurrent protected device requirements.
Speaker 2: And so it makes it so much clearer now.
Speaker 3: In my mind anyway, maybe not on everybody else's mind,
but in my mind makes a little cleaner. It's a
good separation because supplemental overcurrent protection devices have their own definition,
they have their own rules in Artic one, they are defined.
Whereas now overcurrent protected device is very clear what is
and what is not considered an overcurrent protected device. I
think it makes it clear to me a little more clearer,
if you will. Moving forward now, as you heard me
at the very beginning of this podcast, you saw where
I talked a lot about the expansion of limited energy
in the introduction of new articles and some realignments, talking
about things like seven twenty seven, twenty one, seven twenty two,
which was there, it's just been revised, but you have
seven twenty three that is new, seven twenty four which
is there in the twenty twenty three edition. Again that's
class one power that's more more like our normal power.
But then you get into class two in class three,
which has been revised and it's seven twenty five. And
then of course we had introduced in the twenty twenty
three we had a more clearer definition of what's called
class four fault managed power systems, which got introduced in
the article seven twenty six, I believe. But now you're
seeing new articles seven forty two, which is again the
over voltage kind of like we have overcurrent. Now we
have over voltage for this for these limited energy systems.
And then of course the seven fifty we talked to
grounding and bonding, and of course you still have seven sixty,
which again is still limited energy for the most part,
but it is revised. It has been revised and clarified.
Eight hundred as well has been revised. Eighth five and
eight to forty have all been deleted, right, and then
eight ten, eight twenty, eight thirty all those for premise
powered communication systems, network powered broadband, community antenna, television, and
radio distribution, all of those have been fairly revised in
order to kind of harmonize in this thing with limited
energy articles. And you know I did hear recently that
a lot of the data center folks are starting to
meet now and trying to find a way to lower
their power usage by using DC, which again Thomas Edison
would be like, yep, see, I told you, you know,
and Tesla'll be like, nah, get over it. But the
end of the day, assurgence of a lot of systems
that can integrate that are using less energy lower energy.
And you've heard me talk about volt server. They're not
the only ones. They were the creators of this pulse system.
It's an amazing technology. It's pulse DC. Write about maximum
form hundred and fifty vaults and it's hurtzes between five
hundred to seven hundred hurts, and it fluctuates, it pulses.
It can have an AC or DC supply transmitter and
then all of a sudden it goes through a Class
four fault managed limited power cable and it gets to
a receiver, and the receiver supplies various electric loads, whether
it's taking it purely DC to DC, or if it's
an AC to d C conversion, or if it's a
d C to AC inversion, whatever it.
Speaker 2: Is, and I probably got that backwards, I can't remember,
but Anyway, whatever it's doing is getting more and more
into what people want. Now.
Speaker 3: Again, it's kind of ironic that the class four fault
man systems are considered so safe and they promote them.
It's so safe and it's pulsed. It's it's even safer
than AFCI and gfci's and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And obviously it's not going to handle massive loads votes.
Speaker 3: Okay, you have limiting factors here on the transmitters and
receivers and the conductor sizes, but at the end of
the day, we're not talking about running thousand amps through
these things, so it's very limited in that scope. But again,
the fact that it can do voltages up to four
hundred and fifty vaults and send them long distances in
these packets.
Speaker 2: Makes it very promising.
Speaker 3: And there's places around the country right now that are
utilizing this type of system to do lighting and things
like that, and not so much very load dependent applications yet.
Okay yet, but if for the most part they can
handle lighting very well, most applications monitors, computers, terminal, all
that stuff that normally we'd have to convert to DC anyway,
like with LED lighting, I mean, why I have to
go from AC to DC you know or whatever. Why
convert and if you can send it longer distances, pump
up the voltage and go DC DC and be able
to it just makes sense for a lot of our
lighting needs. Now now that the lighting is is getting
to thirteen watts and all these kind of things with
LEDs that are going to equivalent to sixty watts and
all these kinds of it makes sense, right, power consumption.
Everybody's worried about energy and yata, so it makes sense.
So these things are gonna be coming on. I employ
electricians out there, get familiar and maybe try to find
your niche. Now, the irony I was talking about is
that these aren't permitted in that I'm aware of. I
haven't I really haven't looked that deep into the twenty
twenty six, But in previous in twenty twenty three, you
weren't permitted to use a Class four fault managed system
in a dwelling. That's weird to me because I would
think you could get away with big dwellings and do
all the lighting in this type of stuff and all
the heavy loads and demands on devices that use DC
that are gonna have those power bricks that convert it.
You know, I would I would think that you would,
this would this would be safe in somebody, we'd be
pioneering this. But in the code it was not permitted
in dwellings. So it was very heavily commercially was driving it.
And so I imagine that will change. Okay, whether it
has already, I haven't be.
Speaker 2: Honest with you.
Speaker 3: I haven't looked. I really haven't looked. I probably should look,
but I haven't. Once that changes, you're gonna have houses.
It could be ten thousand square foot but have one
hundred AMP services. I mean you could if it gas appliances. Well,
I mean, I'm just saying in theory, if the majority
of the loading was being handled from a DC direct,
then you know you're just offsetting the AC loads to
the different things. So I mean, if you think about it,
it is plausible, really is. But I don't think we're
there yet. And the beauty of the way that the
twenty twenty six Code is addressing limited energy is to
try to separate these things out so it is less
confusion because it gives you obviously it's giving us more articles,
and more articles are going to be more sp Pacific
to what we're trying to address. So that's the effort
that it's trying to do. Okay, you kind of follow
the logic train here on that, So okay, that's it
for that. All right, folks, Hopefully you got something out
of today is introduction. We're just kind of dipping our
toe in the twenty twenty six edition. We will have
other episodes that talk about it and get a little
more detail into it, but hopefully it just kind of
give you a little bit of a sprinkling, if you will,
of what's coming in the twenty twenty six the thought
process of where it's going. If you get your hands
on a twenty twenty six edition, obviously it's available in
the link and you can look at it and kind
of see the structure and get familiar with it and
some things. It's just going to add clarity, a little
easier to understand some things, and it's gonna maybe it
doesn't change what was in the twenty twenty six for example,
for some specific article or section, But sometimes when a
rule changes to add clarity, it wasn't intended to change
the rule. It was intended to make the rules read
better and a little easier to understand and make it
more appliable, and so there's not a conflict between an
interpretation that an inspector may give and the installer. That
might be the only reason something was changed. Of course,
could be just a brand new change. But I think
you see, this is why we did the code panels
and why the process that an FPA does this every
three years, because there is not to force you to
have to.
Speaker 2: Learn the code again.
Speaker 3: That that's you know, some people think that's what it is,
but that's not it, and it's not an effort to
keep you confused. It really is supposed to be an
effort to catch things that were missed, add things that
were that needed to be clarified, add new technology as
it emerged, and then roll it into the code and
create a minimum safety standard that everybody can understand a
little bit better. That's the goal every three years. Now,
whether we achieve that or not, I can't.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: You got to be the judge of that, whether you
think we actually achieve it or not. But there it is,
all right, folks. We will catch you on another episode
of Mastering the NEEC. My name is Paul Abernaty. Thanks
for joining me. Hey, if you're looking to learn the
National Electrical Code just a little bit better and you
want to get our get into our fast tracks family.
Speaker 2: Do me a favor.
Speaker 3: Go over to fasttrackssystem dot com. Watch our video. It's
under the info tab and the navigation. Watch the video
about our courses, read the blogs, enjoy those, Join our
message board. We have a discussion forum. Look for that
and just chime in. We'd love to hear from you.
So just embroaden yourself and learn as much as you can.
That's what we're here to do. Till next time, folks,
Stay safe, God bless.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into another electrifying episode of the Master
the NDP podcast. We hope you're feeling more powered up
and ready to tackle the electrical world with the knowledge
and confidence you need to succeed. Remember, in the electrical trade,
knowledge is power, and we're here to make sure you
stay plugged into the latest insights, tips.
Speaker 2: And code updates.
Speaker 1: If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave
us a review, and share the podcast with your.
Speaker 2: Fellow electricians and industry pros.
Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your tools sharp, your circuits clear,
and you're my focused because here at the Master of
the ANEC podcast, we're all about sparking your success. Stay safe,
stay smart, and keep mastering the trade. From all of
us here at Electrical Code Academy, thank you for all
your support and we will see you on the next
amazing Master of the NEC podcast episode