No NEUTRAL Definition in the 2005 NEC!

Code Making Panel 1 acted on the proposed definition and comment for the term "Neutral" and Held it For Further Study for the 2008 NEC.

A Task Force, comprised of Code Making Panels 1, 5, 8, and 13 will meet to develop that term, and make a suggestion in the form of a 2008 NEC Proposal.

The term "System Bonding Jumper" will be defined in Article 250 only under the rule that covers separately derived systems.

I have this image of task force members decending en masse' on the local library, demanding a websters of a frail bespectacled libraian.... with claims that the fate of the NEC lies in the balance...

~S~

How long have we, as an industry, been struggling to come up with a definition for "neutral?"

I can't define it, but I usually recognize it when I see one.

Tom:

I have information and legal documents and reports that go back as far as the late 60's.

Its been said: "That question is so old it can Vote!"

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but I usually recognize it when I see one.

LOL

The "neutral" goes back to the beginning. . .It was a neat engineering trick to help with voltage drop and to reduce copper cost back in the bad old days of DC generators that had to transmit their output without the benefit of stepup and stepdown transformers.

I've been thinking about the whole idea of the need for "definitions" of technical terms in safety codes.

Isn't the teaching of basic technical terms, and the correct application of them, the job of the training section of the industry?

Why include, as part of the code, the definition of "neutral" and not other terms like "capacitor" or "transformer"? Where would you stop?

Ed

inciting the CMP to stretch the bounds of discernible vernacular.....interesting

granting every trade journalist a living examiming minuta in a crappy economy.....noteworthy

defining what has been considered undefinable for a century.....special

having something basically inconsequential in terms of safety gain you personal notoriety at trade jublies.....priceless

~S~

Here's how the neutral was defined by the British IEE some years ago:

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Neutral conductor. The neutral conductor of a 3-phase 4-wire system, the conductor of a single-phase or d.c. installation which is earthed by the supply undertaking (or otherwise at the source of supply), or the middle wire or common return conductor of a 3-wire d.c. or 3-wire single-phase a.c. system.

Note the circular reference in the first part of the definition! [Linked Image]

[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 12-14-2003).]