Greg, I'm biased because of my commercial back round.
Our circuits are typically very long compared to residential dimensions.
I've even had the weird experience of having to twin up #10 home-runs / splitting a 12A 208 V load in half -- because it was THAT far away from the panel. The CWA wouldn't tolerate anything less. (!)
As for e-economics, in my area, the PUC is determined to ramp kW-Hr rates into orbit. My McMansion neighbors are already paying $ 0.45 per marginal kW-Hr, in the summer. At such rates, ANY lost energy due to code minimum wire sizing looks bad.
We pay the same for wire as you... But our e-rates are in orbit.
Right now, spas and hot tubs are being listed 'free' all over my local CraigsList. It's the power bill. They were bought at a time when power rates were one fourth the current marginal cost. (!)
I expect that Someone will wake up and start retrofitting such loads with heat pumps. No one in Greater Sacramento uses a hot tub in the snow. So heat pumps are wildly favored for the lowest cost Btus for heating water.
Beyond that, maybe there's a way that HOs can set up solar-heated spa-water on the cheap. Such a system would no longer need high pressures -- not even perfect integrity.
But, it looks like electrically heated hot tubs are being driven out of the market by politics.
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As I said, Reno, you just can't win when you provide blow-by-blow specs for a small residential project.
Instead, everyone must use boiler plate. I rather suspect that Holmes has boiler-plated his construction standards, too.
It's something that the big fellas have done for a long, long time. It's time every EC does the same.
It's one way of stepping clear of the trunk-slammers.
And say it plain: good work is ALWAYS underbiddable. There are SO MANY corners that can be cut. Slipshod is simply not our game.
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The ultimate make or break for most ECs is screw-ups. Stuff like bidding errors, re-work, inspection failures, omitted critical materials...
If you NEVER suffer such dings, chances are that you'll survive.
To pull that off means to walk away from teaser bidding -- on work that is too far outside your scope of confidence. In today's economy, being aggressive is suicide.
I particularly chuckle at ECs who seriously think that GCs have a legitimate need to swell the ranks of their EC subs. The reality is they've burned their prior subs, one way or another. No EC is so overbooked that their client-GCs must be turned away. No, the number of GCs bankrupting their subs is simply exploding. That's the way of the world. The tip-off: they always chase fresh blood before they implode.
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Mike made the transition to TV when his local market was absolutely booming.
We all should be so lucky.
Last edited by Tesla; 05/07/12 02:23 AM.
