My stance was the same as the rest of you.

The inspector is an old pro and an IAEI member that's always seemed reasonable before.

He explained the reasoning, and I was more than happy to comply. Like I said, at first I thought he'd gone nuts.

This is in a not-so-good neighborhood. Any visible piece of copper is stolen nearly as quickly as it's installed. Ground rods are cut off in the belief that they're solid copper. The wooden moldings are torn off of utility poles, and the ground wires are cut off.
"If that isn't severe physical damage", he asked, "then what is?"
His solution to this is to sleeve any exposed copper with conduit so that it appears to be "doing something", and doesn't offer recognition to the thieves. Apparently it has worked, because he said the buildings that have been done this way haven't had the GECs ripped off. [Linked Image]

How are you gonna argue with logic like that? I think it's a great case of thinking "outside of the box", and suits the purpose just fine!

(I didn't use smurf tube......just because of UV [Linked Image])



[This message has been edited by electure (edited 03-16-2005).]