ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues How Long Does It Take To Learn the NEC?

AN ETERNITY! It changes all the time
Every time I think I've learned something in it; the code changes, or the local governing agency amends it to suit their needs.

As far as apprentices go they should be introduced to it before when start in the field. They need to understand that just about everthing you do in the field is governed by the code. They should also be taught how to read it. To me it made a lot more sense when I finally figured out how to apply what I was reading in the book to what I was installing in the field. To me a number of instructors fail to get that message across in the begining. (just my personal opinion)

Wirewiz

I've always tried to teach apprentices to read a setion that pertains to what job they are doing. ie...If we're wiring a house,read the section on type NM.If we're running EMT,read that section.It's always helped me,and I've been in the business since 1977.

I also ask them to post any questions they may have on ECN.

How long to learn the NEC? The guy who says he knows the NEC is like the bachelor who says he understands women, both are either complete idiots or liars. Everytime I think I know it all, along comes somebody who proves me wrong.

There is no end to learning it because it changes so much every three years. Experiences navigators are definetly more effecient at using it and as I heard someone once say "use the NEC as a tool, not a weapon."

In my role as an instructor for apprentice programs my approach is not to "learn the code", but instead, to "learn how to use the code".

It is important to know which Sections are general sections, and which are supplementary, and/or ammendatory, to what rule or sub-rule an exception applies, and that type of thing.

Ed

I agree with everyone else. It's always going to have sections which must be discussed in depth for a proper interpretation.

Heck, I can only recite a handfull of stuff from it - and this is from close to 20 Years of reading it! This list is:

* A few items in Art. 90, 100, 200 - 250 and 310.
* A few tables in 250 and 310 (310-16 to be exact) - but still only a "Nibble".
* Some of the stuff from Appendixes.

Just learning how to navigate through it takes time!

Virgil,

Love the way Dan Ackroyd can just throw out stuff like that!!!

Per Dragnet, tosses out the exact code section and information per written - all in like one breath!

Per Coneheads, descriptive wording of ANYTHING just rolls out like a well oiled machine!
Example: "Educational Facility for training and protocol involved with operation of internal combustion Vehicles" = Driving School.

Wish I could do that without getting toung tied!

I do the same thing! "Go Dan, Go!!!"

Very impressive!

Scott s.e.t.

let us also consider theory...

I learn more from the Inspectors, right after the point the bad stuff to us!

JGE,i find said exchange priceless as some AHJ's have been carear tradesmen. However AHJ's here are scarce as nats in a windstorm....


guess i should get the GOOD donuts??

I figure that by the end of your apprenticeship that you have enough of a handle on the code, and electrical work, to begin to realize how much you don't know.
After about three years of work, you begin to have an idea of how the code "thinks," and are pretty decent at guessing where the code will lead, and can judge whether or not it's time for some research.
Right about then they re-issue the thing, and you have to stary over.