An average day

[ICE]

The permit was issued to an absentee owner/builder. That was a mistake. And then it got worse.

This is the correction slip for this job.

16823 @$& )!)+% was inspected for an electric service panel upgrade on 7-1-21 with the following result.

1 The tunnel kit that shields the service entrance conductors has not been installed.

2 A ground bus has been added and placed where it would interfere with the tunnel kit. Remove the added ground bus and land all grounds on the bus that was provided by the manufacturer.

3 Open the cover that is below the meter and provide pictures.

4 Provide pictures of the mounting flanges.

5 Provide pictures of the cable fittings below the enclosure.

6 Provide pictures looking down at the top of the enclosure.

7 Provide pictures of the roof jack flashing.

8 Provide a picture of the jumper wire at the water heater.

9 Provide a picture of the connection of the GEC to the water main within five feet of where it enters the building. That applies to metal water mains. If the water main is plastic, provide a picture.

10 Raise the armor protected GEC 2" above the ground.

11 Place a structure strap at the wall top plates. The strap shall be long enough to provide ten 1.5" long 10d nails or #10 Simpson SDS screws past each side of the damage. The damage being the holes drilled for the conduits.

12 Seal the wall top plates with approved fire-block caulk.

13 Obtain a permit for the receptacles located below the panel.

14 Install in use cover for the receptacle4s.

15 The receptacles shall be GFCI, Tamper Resistant and Weather Resistant.

16 There is obvious signs of a rewire. That involves junction boxes and wiring in an attic. Provide pictures of all of that. Open the junction boxes and show the splices and grounding.

17 AFCI protection is required per the CEC.

18 Obtain a mechanical permit for the range hood.

19 Label the circuit breakers and provide pictures.

20 Identify the conductors that land on the 50 amp breaker. Those conductors shall be rerouted so that they do not interfere with the tunnel kit.

21 A dwelling re-wire requires a permit.

22 Is there some reason that you thought that it's a good idea to do electrical work?

23 Back off the lock ring on the service entrance conduit hub. Show that there is no intact knockout ring. If a knockout ring is present, install a bonding bushing. The bonding jumper shall be #4 awg.

 

[e hilton]

#2 … did they install the ground bus themselves? I dont see one provided by the manufacturer.
#22 … you didnt really include that on the report. Or did you?

 

[ICE]

#2 … did they install the ground bus themselves? I dont see one provided by the manufacturer.
#22 … you didnt really include that on the report. Or did you?

They did install the ground bus and I did include #22.

The owner is not supposed to have an owner builder permit unless the owner lives there. This is sisters that inherited the property and are dolling it up...probably for a sale....or they might keep it as a rental....it is currently a rental.

Why a permit technician issued an electrical permit escapes me. The permit includes a 200 amp service panel, a kitchen range hood, garbage disposal and a clothes washer. No other permits. These deals never turn out well. There is most likely a lot of work being done/completed.

The fact that someone decided to do the work with a profound lack of knowledge is an insult. An insult to the people that took the time and put out the effort to learn the trade as well as the inspector.

It's like this: They fling shlt against the wall and I will clean up that shlt that doesn't stick. Then they fling more shlt....and on it goes.

 

[ICE]

Solar entrepreneur doing a service panel upgrade. The way I do a virtual inspection requires that they send me many pictures before I contact them for a live stream.

This job involved 12 solar panels, a storage battery with a load center and a main panel upgrade. I received 100 pictures from several separate projects. I didn't catch the mistake until I had written corrections for ten minutes. The office contact for the slightly, skilled workmen denied that there were extraneous photos. He got a little pissy about it.

This was all back and forth by emails. I informed him that a lack of credibility does not allow a virtual inspection. To which he replied that I have insulted him by calling him a liar and a cheat. He let me know that he would bring this to the attention of the building official. I let him know that those were his words and the building official was BCC on all of the emails.

Even with 100 pictures there is still a great many that were not sent. I was tempted to write corrections for all of it and let him sort it out. But instead of that he is on the ignore list.

 

[Norcal]

The lack of a locknut & bushing is a nice touch in addition to the cockeyed conduit, but it is a Zinsco II panel so crap work dovetails with a crappy panel, The Eaton BR caters to the same market that Zinsco catered to, combined with the Challenger (Zinsco successor) interiors, that is why I call the BR panels "Zinsco II". Did they use a Myers hub for the armored GEC? LOL! If they did.

 

[ICE]

3-2/0 service entrance conductors were passed through that offset. I do not know if it is 1.5 or 2 inch. The worker has a magic-marker for important notes.

 

[ICE]

That Enphase battery is just over 12" thick. Would you write a working space correction for the fused disconnect? How about a working space violation for the garage door which is not 36" from the face of anything?

 

[steveray]

Yes and yes....Especially for new/ added equipment...

 

[RBK]

What's the garage door height? I thought working space height was 6.5' or height of equipment, whichever is greater. If the door and track are above that, it doesn't matter if they are within 36". It's possible that the vertical track on the right is within the working space for the far right panel, but that's a stretch, and depends on where you measure the minimum 30" width. As for the disconnect, the battery probably extends a bit more than the allowed 6" beyond the face of disconnect, but not by much. I think it meets the intent (access for service, maintenance, etc.), if not the letter of the code.

 

[ICE]

110.26(A)(3)

(3) height of Working Space. The work space shall be clear and extend from the grade, floor, or platform to a height of 2.0 m (61⁄2 ft) or the height of the equipment, whichever is greater. Within the height requirements of this section, other equipment that is associated with the electrical installation and is located above or below the electrical equipment shall be permitted to extend not more than 150 mm (6 in.) beyond the front of the electrical equipment.

Exception No. 1: In existing dwelling units, service equip- ment or panelboards that do not exceed 200 amperes shall be permitted in spaces where the height of the working space is less than 2.0 m (61⁄2 ft).

Exception No. 2: Meters that are installed in meter sockets shall be permitted to extend beyond the other equipment. The meter socket shall be required to follow the rules of this section.

Exception No. 3: On battery systems mounted on open racks, the top clearance shall comply with 480.10(D).

 

[ICE]

California Electrical Code 2016
Table 310.15(B)(3)(c) Ambient Temperature Adjustment for Raceways or Cables Exposed to Sunlight on or Above Rooftops


The EMT that is painted white has a feeder from the main panel to what was a main panel and is now a sub-panel. I applied a 30° temperature adder to 113°. At 143° there is an adjustment factor of .47. Clearly this will not work. I then discovered that the table has been removed from the current code. That is odd. So the table is gone but the temperature remains the same.

 

[ICE]

Electric service panel upgrade. The work was done in the past without a permit and a solar company is attempting to get it approved.



In typical fashion, the person hosting the inspection has no experience in the electrical trade and no clue as to what has been done.



They do understand the term "bare Minimum".

 

[ICE]

Homeowner doing the work on his SFD. Sent to me by an inspector. The homeowner's day job is Fireman.

 

[Norcal]

If someone is writing "220" they don't know what they are doing either.

 

[ICE]

If someone is writing "220" they don't know what they are doing either.

For the first two thirds of my life the electricity was 220 and 110....now and then it was 230 and 115. In this woke environment it is 240 and 120. During the millennium it's gonna knock your socks off.

 

[fatboy]

For the first two thirds of my life the electricity was 220 and 110....now and then it was 230 and 115. Now in this woke environment it is 240 and 120.

Truth! I never know what is correct to say...............

 

[Norcal]

For the first two thirds of my life the electricity was 220 and 110....now and then it was 230 and 115. In this woke environment it is 240 and 120.

110 & 220 went away before the 2nd world war in favor of 115/230V, not sure when the current standard of 120/240V came into being, but it was before the NEC dropped 115/230V for calculations.

 

[BN4537]

California Electrical Code 2016
Table 310.15(B)(3)(c) Ambient Temperature Adjustment for Raceways or Cables Exposed to Sunlight on or Above Rooftops


The EMT that is painted white has a feeder from the main panel to what was a main panel and is now a sub-panel. I applied a 30° temperature adder to 113°. At 143° there is an adjustment factor of .47. Clearly this will not work. I then discovered that the table has been removed from the current code. That is odd. So the table is gone but the temperature remains the same.

Are you referring to table 310.15(B)(1) in the 2020 NEC? They moved the tables around quite a bit in Article 310. Or did that table not make it into the CEC?

 

[ICE]

The inspection is for solar and thankfully it is not my inspection. There was a service panel upgrade done under a permit and it has not passed a final inspection. The old panel was converted to a junction box.

 

[steveray]

Handsome....

 

[ICE]

This leaning fence was shown to me by an inspector that was there for a swimming pool pre-deck inspection. He had not been to the property prior to the pre-deck. The fence should have generated a correction notice at the pre-gunite inspection but it did not happen.

 

[SDS]

This thread is always entertaining...I envy you guys out there getting all that fresh air and sunshine at work

 

[ICE]

The job is a room addition. There's about six junction boxes that will be buried. He hired a "handyman" to do the wiring. I fired the handyman.

 

[tmurray]

This thread is always entertaining...I envy you guys out there getting all that fresh air and sunshine at work

I always hear that comment from people on the sunny days, but no one tells me they envy me when I have to do inspections in a hurricane or blizzard...