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#18518 12/10/02 05:00 PM
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 840
C
Member
I didn't want to threadjack Trumpy's Conduit size thread, so I'll ask here.

Metric or English? Pros and Cons.

International opinions welcome. We all know where you stand, Paul. [Linked Image]


Peter
#18519 12/10/02 05:48 PM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,457
E
Member
Old dog...new tricks? Metric...yuck.

#18520 12/10/02 05:52 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,392
S
Member
i just can't think metric
[Linked Image]

#18521 12/10/02 06:39 PM
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 267
W
Member
I'd hate to see the whole code book change to metric. Sometime it may happen though.

#18522 12/10/02 09:33 PM
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 85
C
Member
Most of our drawings are coming from the architects in metric up here now. In our 1998 code book our section on explosion-proof changed to something more inline with european equipment, so its almost becoming inevitable. When the big rush was on for the 1998 Calgary Olympics everything was metric try finding replacement parts for this stuff now.

#18523 12/10/02 10:00 PM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 440
Likes: 3
Member
I have a hard time with the idea of calling a suppier, and asking them to send me 500' of #21 emt. Or telling an apprentice to get a bundle of 16 out of the back of the truck.

English, mate,
Doc


The Watt Doctor
Altura Cogen
Channelview, TX
#18524 12/11/02 12:48 AM
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 2,236
Likes: 1
Member
WattDoc,
Ask for a bundle of 16, and you'll probably get a tangled handful of fixture wire!

[Linked Image]


-Virgil
Residential/Commercial Inspector
5 Star Inspections
Member IAEI
#18525 12/11/02 06:43 AM
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 1,498
Likes: 1
C
C-H Offline
Member
Metric!

I can't see any reason for using the other strange units. How do you answer a simple question like:

"What is the resistance of twenty feet of #14?"

"Oh, that's easy" you go "I'll just look it up in a table" and walk off to find that table.

Had it been in metric the only thing you need to know is the resistivity of copper (0.017 ohm mm2/m)

"What is the resistance of 6 m of 2.0 mm2?"

"Oh, that's easy", I go, "6 times 0.017 over 2.0 is roughly 0.05 ohms"

I'm an engineer and many of our books in class (here in Sweden) were American, using strange units like the British Thermal Unit. In my world heat is measured in Watts, without need for a special unit.

[This message has been edited by C-H (edited 12-11-2002).]

#18526 12/11/02 08:27 AM
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,056
R
Member
English.

#18527 12/11/02 09:34 AM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
Doc, you wouldn't ask for 500', you'd ask for 166 m of #16.
Or if metric units are seriously adopted you'd probably ask for 150 m of 16mm conduit.
No. it just depends on what you're used to. I'll never ever get 'round to think in feet and inches, I always convert. However, I think metric is more logical and it's according to the decimal system. i guess here in Austria 200 years ago here in Austria no one thought of metric units. Nowadays the only things that still come in inches are plumbing pipes and sometimes lumber. It's not official, but in every shop you still buy 3/4" gas pipe or 1/2" garden hose. But elsewhere? Wires are 0.75, 1, 1.5, 2.5, 4, 6, 10 and more mm2, conduit (PVC only here) is 16, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 and more mm.
Guess if America should ever adopt metric cable sizes, the typical 15A circuit would be wired with 2.5 mm2.

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