iwire,
I know where you're coming from. If you take a step back and look at it that way, it may seem like splitting hairs. But I think the acual problem needs to have a second look also by taking a step back. I really feel there is so much haze in figuring these for residential that there is plenty of room to make a mistake.
I guess it is the NEC's vagueness & ambiguity that gives me so little confidence in a load calc.'s end result. I'm not so sure a mistake would make a difference either way. It kind of makes the whole formality feel kind of pointless.
Of course obviously there is a real point to doing an accurate load calc., but I have yet to find one that I can feel confident with. Or maybe I just need to know, trust, and understand the NEC's way better.
I guess I want to be able to come up with a number and say "this is your load". A number that I felt confident was not too far on either side of the line figuring too much or too little. But maybe it's just the nature of the beast. Because of diversity and demand factors it is too difficult if not impossible to have that theroretical or calculated number that is an accurate representation of the actual real load.
