In Illinois and perhaps in all jurisdictions, you are totally free to do all the conduit and wiring you want as long as you don’t connect it at the panel. I interpret this to mean you can connect it to circuit breakers that are hanging free inside the panel. Then hire the electrician to inspect and plug in the circuit breakers.
I got into a huge pissing matching in Quincy Illinois with the manager of a business incubator. She didn’t like me and didn’t want to cooperate with me on anything. I needed more power for a wave solder machine. 208 3ph. There was single phase 240 in the unit as well as a 480 3ph that ran through all the units. I found a transformer and installed it and a three phase panel. Ran the conduit and wiring to my machine and left the 480 tap to the 480 bus just hanging out in the pull box. This woman called the local building inspectors and other authorities, I had a shop full of bureaucrats. She smirked as she watched them look everything over. But then as they broke their huddle, the told her that un-energized electrical work is no different than hanging a piece of art on the office wall. At that, my electrician (who had been tipped off and was standing by), climbed the ladder, connected the 480 tap and away we went. You would have thought that would have been the end of it. She called the architect that designed the building and complained that I was severely overloading the electrical system of the building. The architect along with a PE licensed electrical engineer paid me a visit with her in tow. I drew the schematic of the 480 system in the building, show them a schedule of loads and said “even if we started all machines in the building at the exact same time, we still have 50% reserve building, it is impossible to overload this with the current equipment”, at that comment that woman said “ don’t say impossible, I have had licensed electricians look at this and they said there is a problem. At that the PE gave her a tutorial on the difference between a PE and an electrician, they pronounced my loads healthy and left the building. She still stayed on my butt until I eventually moved out of the building. Long story to say, do all the wiring you want, just have the guy with the license energize it. From: That One Guy /sarcasm Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 10:42 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Basic electrical competency training Yeah, thats the problem I run into at elevators, they dont go by code. Panels with 110 on one phase, 65 on another. I assume its caused by tying a sub panel into a 3phase with a problematic motor Most of them have approved us doing the work. the 1200 dollar bill for an electrician to run a 120 foot conduit circuit is what pushed this On Fri, Dec 11, 2015 at 11:28 AM, George Skorup <[email protected]> wrote: For the bigger outfits, we don't want the liability, so we pay their electrician. And usually everything has to be in rigid or aluminum. For the smaller guys, we ask how they want it done. Most of the time they don't care, so we just do it and follow code. You have to keep in mind that you're going to run into lots of 3-phase, possible weird configurations and sub panels all over the place. On 12/11/2015 11:15 AM, That One Guy /sarcasm wrote: Without getting into the licensing details Im getting more freedom to touch the service side at our sites Im a really handy home wiring guy, overly cautious In illinois or online, does anybody know of a basic competency program for electrical? If I was going to do a full training, id tell my boss to punch sand and go be a union electrician, so im not looking at that. Liability may not allow for a program like this to exist, I just dont want to blow a grain elevator up because I didnt know something (not overly concerned considering some of the wiring at the elevators we operate at) -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team. -- If you only see yourself as part of the team but you don't see your team as part of yourself you have already failed as part of the team.
