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How do you plan to participate in this Code Study group

Casual Observer - What's all this code stuff about?
- 7 (36.8%)
Participant - Need to improve my code knowlege for AHJ challenges
- 8 (42.1%)
Student - Plan to take the electrician exam within a year
- 1 (5.3%)
Refresher - I used to know this stuff, but not the 2014 edition
- 2 (10.5%)
Instructor - I know code and am willing to sub-moderate the Q&A's
- 1 (5.3%)

Total Members Voted: 19

Voting closed: July 07, 2016, 08:25:45 AM


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Author Topic: Code Study  (Read 17079 times)

Jonathan Johnson

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2016, 12:14:39 PM »

FWIW, and I'm not sure it has any relation to the test, but I was surprised by how much of the more esoteric seemingly EE stuff my friend who went through trade school for electric had to learn.  Design sorts of stuff with lots of math that it seems should have been covered by designers before it got to field install.  Could just be that I never run into that stuff in the production field or when working on my house though.

You're thinking of electricians as installers of predesigned (by engineers) systems. If that's the case, then about the only math they need to do is calculating how long the piece of conduit needs to be.

Many electricians are called upon to do "field engineering." That is, the customer calls and wants to install a thromdibulator or three. The electrician has to be able to look at the nomenclature plates, determine the loads, the distance of cabling, and calculate the size of wire, conduit, and whatever else is needed to install. Maybe even determine if other upgrades to the loadcenter or electrical service are necessary.

As a practical matter, you don't need a lot of math for basic installs -- 120V and 240V single-phase circuits are pretty cut-and-dried. It's when you get into larger stuff (and especially 3-phase service) that more math becomes involved, mainly because it gets more expensive to supply these circuits and the customer has an interest in doing it as inexpensively as possible while still maintaining safety.
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Stephen Swaffer

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #11 on: June 06, 2016, 12:41:31 PM »


You're thinking of electricians as installers of predesigned (by engineers) systems. If that's the case, then about the only math they need to do is calculating how long the piece of conduit needs to be.


Assuming you trust the engineer (I don't 8)).  In most cases, it is the electrician on site that will be held accountable by the customer and the AHJ-whether there is an engineer involved or not.
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Mike Sokol

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #12 on: June 06, 2016, 01:33:46 PM »

We could set up a " group study" right here. Most online education systems make use of threaded discussions. We could read a chapter or article a week, and then pick apart the details in a discussion.

The 2014 NEC Code book has 938 pages divided into 9 chapters. I think this study group could be arranged like a book club, where all the participants read a chapter one week, then meet on a thread to discuss it the following week. So maybe the 1st week we all read chapter 1, the 2nd week we discuss chapter 1, the 3rd week we read chapter 2, the 4th week we discuss chapter 2, etc… So in 18 weeks we will have spent 9 weeks reading chapters, alternating with 9 weeks discussing chapters, and finish with a discussion of the entire book. There’s a lot to think about and I don’t pretend to be a code monkey, but I do know much of the calculation parts of the code which is what gives most guys trouble.

FYI: The PDF or Softcover version of the code is around $95 American, which might be a bit pricey for casual followers. There is a free version of NEC 70 on the NFPA site that makes you create and log in with a free account, but I assume there will be much spam generated. I'm calling my contact at the NFPA to see if there's any grants or discounts available for this discussion group. One thing we cannot do is post or distribute "free" PDF's of the code since that's a direct copyright violation. 

While I'm personally doing this as a refresher prior to taking the written exam this fall, for many casual readers it will simply be a great education as to how and why we wire things safely and to code.

What do you think? Any other ways to do this that makes sense on this forum?

Tom Roche

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #13 on: June 06, 2016, 03:21:12 PM »

The 2014 NEC Code book has 938 pages divided into 9 chapters. I think this study group could be arranged like a book club, where all the participants read a chapter one week, then meet on a thread to discuss it the following week. So maybe the 1st week we all read chapter 1, the 2nd week we discuss chapter 1, the 3rd week we read chapter 2, the 4th week we discuss chapter 2, etc… So in 18 weeks we will have spent 9 weeks reading chapters, alternating with 9 weeks discussing chapters, and finish with a discussion of the entire book. There’s a lot to think about and I don’t pretend to be a code monkey, but I do know much of the calculation parts of the code which is what gives most guys trouble.

FYI: The PDF or Softcover version of the code is around $95 American, which might be a bit pricey for casual followers. There is a free version of NEC 70 on the NFPA site that makes you create and log in with a free account, but I assume there will be much spam generated. I'm calling my contact at the NFPA to see if there's any grants or discounts available for this discussion group. One thing we cannot do is post or distribute "free" PDF's of the code since that's a direct copyright violation. 

While I'm personally doing this as a refresher prior to taking the written exam this fall, for many casual readers it will simply be a great education as to how and why we wire things safely and to code.

What do you think? Any other ways to do this that makes sense on this forum?

A great way to study is to create your own test questions along with the answers and corresponding references.  It takes more effort, but it's very effective.  And it will be much less burdensome if a handful of folks here participate to create the test bank. 

Back when I did instructional design for a living I used a test question generator.  I simply input the question stem along with the correct answer and usually three plausible distractors (for multiple choice).  The generator could be set to scramble the questions and distractors each time the test was taken.  I imagine something is available for free on the Interweb that does this.  It was the process of researching specific topics in which to make good questions, finding the answers, and coming up with plausible but incorrect distractors that made it very effective learning.
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Mike Sokol

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #14 on: June 06, 2016, 03:53:51 PM »

I imagine something is available for free on the Interweb that does this.  It was the process of researching specific topics in which to make good questions, finding the answers, and coming up with plausible but incorrect distractors that made it very effective learning.
There's already a number of free or nearly free tests available on a variety of sites. But I just don't want to memorize answers.... I want to be able to discuss the theory behind each answer. That's a better way for me to learn.

Jay Barracato

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #15 on: June 06, 2016, 04:52:40 PM »

The 2014 NEC Code book has 938 pages divided into 9 chapters. I think this study group could be arranged like a book club, where all the participants read a chapter one week, then meet on a thread to discuss it the following week. So maybe the 1st week we all read chapter 1, the 2nd week we discuss chapter 1, the 3rd week we read chapter 2, the 4th week we discuss chapter 2, etc… So in 18 weeks we will have spent 9 weeks reading chapters, alternating with 9 weeks discussing chapters, and finish with a discussion of the entire book. There’s a lot to think about and I don’t pretend to be a code monkey, but I do know much of the calculation parts of the code which is what gives most guys trouble.

FYI: The PDF or Softcover version of the code is around $95 American, which might be a bit pricey for casual followers. There is a free version of NEC 70 on the NFPA site that makes you create and log in with a free account, but I assume there will be much spam generated. I'm calling my contact at the NFPA to see if there's any grants or discounts available for this discussion group. One thing we cannot do is post or distribute "free" PDF's of the code since that's a direct copyright violation. 

While I'm personally doing this as a refresher prior to taking the written exam this fall, for many casual readers it will simply be a great education as to how and why we wire things safely and to code.

What do you think? Any other ways to do this that makes sense on this forum?

Mike,
That is really close to what I pictured.

I would recommend that on each chapter the study leader post one question, that all the followers provide an answer to back with specific references to the code, then each follower post one question, and an answer to at least one of their peers questions.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

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Jay Barracato

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #16 on: June 06, 2016, 05:37:29 PM »

This almost begs to be a sub-forum, where threads could be started for each chapter or code section. Posters would need to be more disciplined than normal to prevent off-topic veers, and clearly incorrect posts should be squashed, or moderated to not be misleading.

I could see this, when finished becoming a useful code reference.

JR   
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Stephen Swaffer

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #17 on: June 06, 2016, 06:55:43 PM »

The general format makes sense. Dividing the discussion into equal segments based on equal time/chapter doesn't necessarily.  IME, most code update classes spend 70-80% of their time on chapters 1-4.

Sections 200-220 are of particular interest to residential.  Section 250 to the end of chapter 2 is grounding-important to everyone.  Chapter 3 covers a LOT of territory and results in a lot of test questions, chapter 4 would be the next.  Chapters 5-8 are special occupancies-for most people an awareness type discussion so you know to get the book out and chapter 9 is tables-discussion of the proper use would be beneficial.

The NFPA puts out an analysis of changes that is a good resource as to why-does anyone have one?  I was going to buy one for 2017, but would consider doing so for purposes of this discussion unless someone else wants to.

Here is another resource some might find interesting:

http://www.iaei.org/web/Online

My  local inspectors have encouraged electricians to attend-the meetings are open to any interested enough to pay the registration.

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Brian McMahan

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #18 on: June 07, 2016, 12:26:12 AM »

Newbie here.  I very much like this idea, FWTW.  Thanks for offering to share...

Note:  I'm not sure how responsive I'd be... as it seems like it'd depend on time of day, etc when people are free for discussion... but I am definitely interested.

Thanks again.


Brian
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Kevin Graf

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Re: Code Study
« Reply #19 on: June 07, 2016, 08:29:53 AM »

It that takes a long time for local authorities (state or city) to adapt newer code books. Lots of locations are still using NEC 2011.
Any vintage NEC code book is not the law, until the local authorities make it a law.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2016, 06:26:03 PM by Kevin Graf »
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Speedskater

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Code Study
« Reply #19 on: June 07, 2016, 08:29:53 AM »


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