The National Electrical Code (NEC) is the guiding light behind most electrical installations in the United States. As a rule, local regulations include the NEC along with any specific ordinances imposed by individual building departments. The fact that so many state and city agencies use the NEC affirms the excellence of this code. As a culture, we might have our disagreements from one coast to the other, but we do agree on the National Electrical Code.
Interestingly, the NEC is not mandatory and therefore has no regulatory control. It’s strictly a set of voluntary guidelines, which is a good thing: If Congress had gotten hold of it and tried to turn it into legislation, we’d still be using candles and kerosene lamps to light our homes. The NEC is just over 100 years old, and it has changed with the times. The advent of electrical power brought with it the need for standards for equipment, installations, and usage. The initial concerns around electricity were mainly about property protection. Fire underwriters were especially concerned, because they were taking losses due to electrical fires.
New York, the late-nineteenth-century center of the universe, wrote the first requirements for electrical safeguards in 1881. More codes by different industries followed, and in 1892, the Underwriters National Electrical Association consolidated these various codes, although there was still no universal acceptance of one set of rules. Saying enough was enough, the National Electric Light Association called a conference in 1896 to come up with one standard set of rules. The conference included utility representatives, underwriters, inspectors, and just about every key player who was involved with this new electricity business. They diced, spliced, and blended the best parts of all the existing American and European codes.
They then tweaked it during a review process, and in 1897, they came up with the National Electrical Code. There have been 48 editions of the code, and the next one is due out in 2002. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has administered the NEC since 1911. Harking back to the original NEC, the current code is a product of group consensus with an even greater variety of contributors including labor unions, testing laboratories, regulatory bodies, and consumer groups.
The NEC goes well beyond home electrical systems.
Among other things, it covers the following:
➤ Fiber-optic cables
➤ Antennas
➤ Fire alarms
➤ Marinas
➤ Carnivals, circuses, and fairs
➤ Mobile homes
➤ Gasoline dispensers
Espresso stands and popcorn wagons might not specifically be named, but they’re covered, too!
Interestingly, the NEC is not mandatory and therefore has no regulatory control. It’s strictly a set of voluntary guidelines, which is a good thing: If Congress had gotten hold of it and tried to turn it into legislation, we’d still be using candles and kerosene lamps to light our homes. The NEC is just over 100 years old, and it has changed with the times. The advent of electrical power brought with it the need for standards for equipment, installations, and usage. The initial concerns around electricity were mainly about property protection. Fire underwriters were especially concerned, because they were taking losses due to electrical fires.
New York, the late-nineteenth-century center of the universe, wrote the first requirements for electrical safeguards in 1881. More codes by different industries followed, and in 1892, the Underwriters National Electrical Association consolidated these various codes, although there was still no universal acceptance of one set of rules. Saying enough was enough, the National Electric Light Association called a conference in 1896 to come up with one standard set of rules. The conference included utility representatives, underwriters, inspectors, and just about every key player who was involved with this new electricity business. They diced, spliced, and blended the best parts of all the existing American and European codes.
They then tweaked it during a review process, and in 1897, they came up with the National Electrical Code. There have been 48 editions of the code, and the next one is due out in 2002. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has administered the NEC since 1911. Harking back to the original NEC, the current code is a product of group consensus with an even greater variety of contributors including labor unions, testing laboratories, regulatory bodies, and consumer groups.
The NEC goes well beyond home electrical systems.
Among other things, it covers the following:
➤ Fiber-optic cables
➤ Antennas
➤ Fire alarms
➤ Marinas
➤ Carnivals, circuses, and fairs
➤ Mobile homes
➤ Gasoline dispensers
Espresso stands and popcorn wagons might not specifically be named, but they’re covered, too!
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