ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Making the NEC free of charge?

I seem to recall that a few years ago, somewhere in Alabama, a town passed an ordinance to recognize the then current NEC as the governing authority on electrical installations. Several homeowners sued the town to supply the NEC w/o charge. They won as the judge ruled that by making the NEC part of an ordinance, copies must be supplied to those requesting same, contractors as well as DIY homeowners. Maybe someone on the forum from AL could fill in more info.
Rowdy

Someone mentioned that the B&D book "Advanced Wiring" was a good DYI resource, i strongly disagree, there are many code violations within this book. For example when discussing isolated ground circuits the book tells you to re-identify a red wire in a 12/3 romex cable to be used as the ground wire. Now we all know that isn't compliant. Needless to say not useful.

rowdyrudy,
Are you sure? The local government, or any other unit of government, is not required to supply the citizens with free copies of other laws or ordinances. They are only required to have a copy on file that you can look at.
Don

"Someone mentioned that the B&D book "Advanced Wiring" was a good DYI resource, i strongly disagree, there are many code violations within this book. For example when discussing isolated ground circuits the book tells you to re-identify a red wire in a 12/3 romex cable to be used as the ground wire. Now we all know that isn't compliant. Needless to say not useful."

I think part of the reason you might find alot of code issues is from what I heard it was a Canadian Publication I can't be sure but the references on the net to it I found all have Random House of Canada as the publisher.

Zack, I still stand behind my original statement. I own both copies of the books that I mentioned, and of all the DIY books, those are the better ones. I agree, the violation you metioned is one of the few in the book. Nonetheless, it is still a decent book.
ECN members apparently feel the same way about the book:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001682.html

As ggardiner already mentioned, I assume there are Canadian and American versions of B&D book, and there may very well be many errors in the Canadian version.

resqcapt19
I believe that I read it in the Decatur paper. The locale was not Decatur but somewhere near there. Also, there are several towns that I am aware of that the residents may obtain copies of all ordinances free of charge. Some even have the ordinances on their web sites.
Rowdy

Among the DIY books, I found the latest edition (2002) of "Wiring a House" by Rex Cauldwell to be a valuable and useful book. Despite the modest sounding title it is generally quite rigorous as DIY books go.

What I really like about the book is that since its author is an experienced electrician of 30 years, it relects the knowledge of real world working conditions. Most of the DIY books are simply rehashing of earlier editions that are dolled up with photographs taken of mock-ups in photo studios. Cauldwell's book has a more "real world" feel about it.

I would be curious to know what others think about this book.