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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,749
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What are some of your inspection experiences?

I mean, what type of relationship have you been able to keep with the person, or agency who inspects your electrical work?

Residential

Commercial

Industrial

Are you an EC, or an AHJ, and were you an EC before taking on the job as an AHJ?

Have you inspected any hotels or hospitals, or Hazardous (Classified) Locations?

Are you interested in finding out more about becoming a certified electrical inspector?

I am looking for some comments from anyone who wants to add them.


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
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Joined: Jan 2005
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Nice idea, Joe- especially if you take the term "inspect" broadly.

There is an attitude held by some that "inspector" is some sort of "rank" above "electrician." This is unfortunate, as there are separate skills for each trade. This misunderstanding can only become worse as the "inspector" racket both expands into the private sector (home inspections) and begins to get filled with 'instant inspectors;' that is, graduates of 'inspection technology' curriculae, who have never worked in any trade.

I think even the most committed contractor can beneift from learning how to systematically inspect a job.....most "walk-throughs" are so cursory as to be worthless!
There is also the issue of today's sparky planning ahead for the time when he is no longer up to the physical demands of the job.

Count me in..since I'm already "committed," I might as well be "certified" as well :-)

Joined: Jul 2003
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I'm leaving for Atlanta next Monday on what we call an Audit of a facility. I'll be part of a team that reviews every aspect of the facility - production, timekeeping, payroll, etc. I'll be doing the maintenance section of a highly mechanized plant of about 1/2 million sq ft. It will take us 10 days. When we finish, Headquarters will issue our findings and the facility will have to submit an overall plan to begin compliance with the recommendations. I am on the team because I have over 20 years with the company, a good portion of that in maintenance. I've done one other audit and that ten-member team had over 300 years combined with the company. Experience is necessary for us to be effective and reasonably efficient. "Instant Experts" wouldn't have a clue where to start.

Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 349
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My most memorable inspector experience? It would have to be one particular job on the Westside of Los Angeles several years ago. We had one particular material handler on the job who was the wife of one of the foremen, who had a pleasing figure, and was rather outgoing. When our inspector visited the jobsite, it was she who escorted him around. She would be briefed beforhand on what needed inspection, and she would let us other foremen know what needed fixing after the visit, and she made sure it was fixed for the inspector by his next visit.

This arrangement worked for us, but then again we never cheated intentionally with regard to code or contract requirements. Still, this is not the recommended method.

Radar


There are 10 types of people. Those who know binary, and those who don't.
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,749
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Reno ...

Quote
Count me in..since I'm already "committed," I might as well be "certified" as well

Look here to get started:
www.iaei.org

and then look for the: "Bulletin of Information"

On the experience item: We can thank our Dad's for being there long ago when we were kids.

I learned a lot from that electrician!

How does the inspector with experience help the person who just got an electrical contractor's license?

Does he tell him what is wrong, and how the Code requires the work to be done?

or

Does he say: "I was asked to make an inspection, I am not your teacher?"

PS: How many Electrical Inspectors are teaching now as well?

Big Jim:

Sure wish I could tag along! Don't forget to look behind the cord caps to be sure they are dead front, and not modified to fit into 20 amp rated single receptacles.

NFPA 70B, Electrical Equipment Maintenance is a good source for maintenance items and includes a nice basic checklist.


Joe Tedesco, NEC Consultant
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 219
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I'm not looking to Hi-jack your thread here but John's comments remind me of a job sevral years back. Breifly: The inspector walked into a gorund-up grocery store (75,000sq ft) to inspect my U/G work, the job super was with me as he had not met the inspector yet and wanted to. The inspector (who knew me) turned to the super and said "From now on you'll be doing all further inspections on this job, you do it right" and left to never return.

Rob

Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 73
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I had one inspector who definitely wanted me on the job site for inspection. If, I was there, I always passed inspection. He might ask to have something minor taken care of and would trust me to do it. If, I wasn't there, I never passed. It got to be a bit of a game. I would try to have everything perfect, and get a violation for workmanship or some very minor detail. He was a good inspector and never unreasonable other than sometimes it was not convenient to meet him at jobsite.

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 806
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On a resi service change (my own house) back in '89:

Upgraded from 100 amp Zinsco (!) to a nice 200 amp surface mount Crouse-Hinds OH Meter combo.

Surface mount on exterior stucco wall with (2) Strut lagged into studs. 2" Galv. riser also strut times 2, lagged into studs and wall header. 3/0 copper THWN feeder, about 7 feet long overall. #4 ground to new rod and cold water pipe with no splices or doubled clamps.

Old circuits (6) tied in via 1" Sealtite, no shared neutrals, all hots/neuts number coded.
That run was about 2' from new panel to old. Old deadfront sealed with heavy gavl. steel, riveted and painted to match, old meter socket covered and sealed with POCO provided cover and ring.

New circuits (including 6/3 feeder to electric range) fed into bottom of panel through 30" of PVC conduit to crawlspace under house. Conduit ends under house with pvc fittings and bushings all cables secured within 4" of conduit entry.

Neat feature of that panel was split neutral buss, so each neutral landed directly in line with the breaker of it's hot feed. Everthing a work of art, anyone could go into that panel and find anything.

Inspector was quite pleased with my work, had many nice compliments about quality of workmanship. But he wouldn't sign off. Why?

He said the NM for the new circuits couldn't be run through conduit! I agreed, but also pointed out the exception which allows lengths up to (I think it was 3 feet back then) to be in conduit for physical protection. I also showed him the article I'd referenced in my '84 Code book.

He pointed out that my book was out of date, So I said fine, what does the new code say about it? Same article, same wording, he still said no way. Hmmm....bear in mind, this was a quite amicable debate, I was sure he was mistaken, but open to his input. I asked what he would like me to do to correct the situation.

His answer was to install a pull can or gutter under the house (access was thru a hatch in Master bed closet, on far side of house BTW) and splice in THHN to land in the breaker box. I disagreed, on the position that splices are traditionally a weak link and I didn't want to splice the 6/3 in particular. He stood firm, and I suggested that I'd like another opinion from another inspector as well. (Again, all done politely.) He said fine, you can call my boss and ask him. He left and I called his boss and explained the dilemma. Mentioned the weak link idea. His boss saw no problems and said he would question the inspector when he came back to the office.

The next morning at 9am I got the call from the inspector who said "I talked to my friends at the office and they agree that if I think it's safe anyway we can sign off." And he did! I thanked him for his time.

As a side note to the festivities, when the POCO came out to do the hook-up they were very impressed. Why? First, they said it was the cleanest resi they'd ever seen (aw, shucks) they were impressed with the use of the galv. riser (Why? I asked. Seems that for a while, PVC (!) risers were allowed.) And finally, I'd left the cover off of the meter socket area. When asked, I explained since they would hook up hot and stuff the meter, I wanted them to see for themselves that everything was clear and tight.

Then they unrolled the #6(?)AL triplex. I laughed and said, no-no. I have electric range, garage workshop and central air coming in later, and would really hate to have to call them out to replace the burned-down drop. They laughed and gave me what I'm guessing was #2AL triplex, really monster stuff. Believe me, even with the range going full tilt, A/C cranked and me working in the garage shop, never had flicker or voltage drop issues!

Of course, that was before the utility deregs, and thier customer service was top notch! The last few service changes I was involved with about 7+ years after I was surprised when POCO crew grumbled because we didn't transfer the drop ourselves. Huh? I always thought it was a huge no-no to touch the drop! (I didn't mind doing it hot. I was always careful and used proper PPE.) But they said to do it if the existing drop was adequate for the load and would reach. Used rated "split-clamp" type connectors and taped well. Go figure. I think the same POCO has a different stand on the issue now.

Sorry this was so long guys. But overall, virtually all my encounters with inspectors have been positive, even when we disagree. [Linked Image]


Stupid should be painful.
Joined: Aug 2003
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Quote
PS: How many Electrical Inspectors are teaching now as well?

I am.

Regarding hotels, hospitals and hazardous: I have inspected hotels and hazardous, but I have never inspected a hospital. In a neighboring city they are building a hospital as we speak, and I am told that they want me to look at it on contract for them. That should be interesting.


Ryan Jackson,
Salt Lake City
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 394
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Brief update on the Atlanta job I mentioned earlier. The plant was in remarkably good shape electrically (even though it took a contractor over 2 days to replace a breaker off the bus feeding a large lighting panel). The hotel was something else again.I have a few pictures I'll try to get up soon but, as an example, I tried to plug the charger for mu camera battery into the outlet above a convienent counter. It simply fell back out of both sides of the duplex. Can you say, "Worn out"?

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