ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion Canadian Electrical Code Topics What is the CEC and how does it work?

Could someone please supply a few details about the CEC to start things off?
Such as -

Who writes the code?

do all areas of the country use it?
are they required to?

What is the revision cycle? (how often is it modified)

Does everyone use the same revision?

Thank You in Advance

Try: http://www.csa.ca/english/home/index.htm and search for CEC.
The CEC is managed by CSA and is written by volunteers (in 1998 there were over 200).

There doesn't seem to be much information available on the CEC (online at least)

The CEC is developed and published by the Candian Standards Association (CSA)Many committees have been set up and each deals with a portion of the code.
Most provinces use the code directly by passing a provincial resolution to accept it as the code for the province.
Others base their provincial code on the CEC. Ontario for example, uses the Ontario Electrical Code (based on the CEC) and adds it's own amendments at quarterly intervals.
The CEC is published every four years. Next publication will be in 2002.
Wm. Grenier

Wm,

Thank You for your response. I understand that there are 2 parts to the code, is that correct? And does one part contain information on equipment listings as per your NRTL like our UL books?

Bill

There are a few parts to the CSA Standard. The Part I is the Canadian Electrical Code (CEC) and the Part II is the manufacturers Standard for electrical products. Here in Saskatchewan we usually adopt the CEC about a year after if comes out. This allows us time to adopt any changes we want for the provincial amendments.
Les

Les,

Thanks for your reply. I find it interesting that electrical product information would accompany or seem to be included in your code. It seems like a natural thing that they would go together. I wonder how many of our Electricians own any UL Product Directories.

Bill

Weve also gone to the European system of labelling with our explosion-proof areas in the 1998 code book. Much nicer to deal with more plastic, intrinsically safe devices, less machined boxes, much lighter and hopefully in a few years much cheaper.

Canadian Sparky,

If you can fill us in a little on any other differences that your code has I'm sure that others will be interested. We (myself anyway) really know very little about such things.

If you have a chance please look at some of the photos in the violations areas and give us some comments on those.

Thanks for your comments!


Bill

Les,

Are you a member of IAEI? I notice that you post over at their BB. I'm just curious.

Bill