ramsy
Roger Ruhle dba NoFixNoPay
- Location
- LA basin, CA
- Occupation
- Service Electrician 2020 NEC
Home Depot's instructions for dwelling wiring omit critical information.I wouldn’t change the ampage, it would just be a replacement. Would this type of job require pulling a permit?
Residential Electrical Code Requirements
The NEC sets requirements for residential systems, including boxes, grounding and outlets as well as rooms with higher energy demands such as kitchens.
www.homedepot.com
Buyers of existing homes beware, this is how previous owners, and handy-persons, tamper with electrical.
Ignoring the meter spot.
Electrical Service Requirements (ESR) for utility connections are published separately from the NEC.
Building permits coordinate with utilities to check power lines. Especially for load-calc ampacity, corroded messengers, flood damage to laterals, land subsidence, collapsing poles, lines tangled in trees, and the weight of blowing winds on fuse box mast connections.
Ignoring the Load Calc.
Building permits check for amperage changes after old gas water heaters, ranges & clothes dryer are replaced with tankless, electric appliances, or adding outlets for hydromessage, hot tub, air conditioner, pool, car charger, or patio cover / garage converted to rooms.
What Home Depot wont tell you, is that homes are now exploding like bombs, with increased hazards, missing safety devices, or undersized wire that gets hotter than your iPhone battery.
When thermal runaway in conduit melts the wire & short circuits, it either explodes, or burns like a fuse with all the power from the utility sub-station, igniting the structure, trees, and everything in its path, or the gas tank bomb in the garage.
The fact that licensing law won't require permits below certain dollar limits, much less in states without licensing, or in unincorporated regions, changing a fuse box regardless of amperage, always requires compliance with current utility ESR's, and insurance policy safety inspections.
Insurance requirements typically reference a national safety standard, which includes an IRC or NEC load calc, a modern electrode connection for lighting strikes, safety devices sized for the wire & listed for the fuse box.
Since nothing avoids property tax, permits and inspection authorities more than re-sold real estate, and mortgage industry re-financing, the unqualified persons that experiment with DIY improvements, and owner builder hack jobs that make new careers in the remodel economy, are all leaving their mess to the next buyer without disclosing the construction defects.