On Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:41:55 -0500 Jon Elson <el...@pico-systems.com> wrote:
> Peter Blodow wrote: > > > > Don't speak of wire nuts or other compromises (I can't find > > gimcracks in my dictionary), it's all . Electrical power supply is > > a big mess in the US and as long as there is no central legislation > > it will probably stay that way. You may tell me a lot about > > different systems in Europe, but at least they are compatible and > > if you plug in a device purchased from anywhere in Europe you can > > be sure that it will comply with the supply net at your home > > location. America has neglected a big chance there to keep up with > > the rest of the world and will be handicapped if this pertains. > > > > > Well, maybe your knowledge of what goes on here dates to 1966, or > what you were told at that > time. The NATIONAL electrical code is followed pretty much > everywhere in the US. > There are some places that put additional limitations on some things, > but mostly in all > municipalities the NEC book is the rule. The body that produces the > NEC is not a legislative > authority, but it is about as close to law as anything we have here. > > Yes, indeed, we are "different" and incompatible with Europe and much > of the rest of > the world. Strangely, we are compatible with much of Japan. > Although, they have > two different frequencies there, 50 Hz and 60 Hz. That must be > really confusing! > > Certainly, we have one standard wall outlet for 120 V home > appliances, and it works > across the whole US and Canada, as far as I know. We also have > pretty much standard outlets for stoves and clothes dryers. None of > this stuff varies by location. > One residential change has been to mandate a safety ground on the > clothes dryer > separate from the neutral. The 240 V clothes dryers from years ago > had 3-prong > plugs, and ran the 120 V dryer motor between one hot and the safety > ground, with no neutral prong. Otherwise, there are new regs for > ground fault interrupters > in kitchens and bathrooms, and now arc-detection interrupters in > certain locations, > but in new construction only. > > But, you imply that we have regional variations in the regulations, > and I am quite sure > that is not the case here. There may be more strict enforcement in > some municipalities, > and less strict in the country. But, there is only one "rule book". > > Jon > > Nice summary Jon. Indeed there is pretty much only one electrical code, one mechanical code, etc. What varies is the quality and professionalism of the inspectors. When I built my house my UBC inspector was just great. No slack but more OK, how to we cure this oversight, etc. The electrical inspector was much more arrogant even about things that had nothing to do with the code. It varies by area; where unions are very strong it is almost impossible to do your own work, eg. Hawaii. Seattle is very difficult and 150 mi to the east difficult but not impossible. My feed is 300 MCM Al for approx 100 m. Not my choice since I tried to get the power company to do distribution ( ~ 7 or 13 Kv underground to a local transformer but they choose the cheap route). If I had been thinking I'd have brought the mains into the shop and then pulled off the bottom of the buss to go to the house. When designed the house used propane for heat, hot water, and cooking. With the price of propane going up it is now at least a break-even to heat with electricity and of course solar. In the fall and spring we end up throwing open the windows to cool the place from 80 down to 70. Life throws interesting curves. I grew up with electricity at cheap prices. < 5 mil/KWh but then there was > 2 GW available a couple of miles away. Additional capacity has increased that to ~ 6.8 GW. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously > valuable. Why? It contains a definitive record of application > performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk > takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2dcopy2 > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a definitive record of customers, application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. Business sense. IT sense. Common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-oct _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
