ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Approved plans Vs. Minimum NEC

This thread refers to one of my pet peeves.

As the Electrician, YOU are the expert...not the engineer, not the architect, not the inspector. Your job, and responsibility, goes way beyond twisting wire nuts.
The engineer likely never even heard of the NEC untill after graduation. None of his coursework made him familiar in the least with trade practices and materials.
The architect is more concerned with the starving feral cats in Moronia, and drewing pretty pictures, than in designing something that works, or makes sense.
The planning department is focused entirely on counting receptacles, collecting fees, and coffee break.
The inspector may have no training beyond a nine-month course in reading a code book.

Let's face reality. Things often look different in person than they do on paper.
If you slavishly follow the approved plans, and the inspector, on final, discovers that something doesn't meet code- guess what? You get to do it over.
If something doesn't work, guess who gets to fix it?

Entire buildings have had to be moved, or demolished, because neither the designer nor the planning dept noticed that the structure infringed upon setback requirements....but the final inspector did!

This is another reason you need to kmow more than just "your" code and trade, and you need to watch the other trades as well. The phone/data guy puts his box within your transformers' working space- get it fixed now!

At some point, you will have to draw the line, stop work, and leave the job. That's what makes you a professional- not just another drone. Or, you will have to tell the customer "I don't do that."

To be fair, neither did most electricians before starting work, either