How To Use The NEC

hi I'm Mike holt and this little video is about how to use the National Electrical Code now if you're probably watching this is because you don't want to have a whole lot of experience for the national to cope and I take my little story when I first started the trade this was sitting on the dash of a pickup truck in a service truck and it was all white I didn't know why it was all white and I decided I'm the electrician I'm gonna be electrician I want to learn this I open up the code book and I started reading and you know after a little while I realized I'm reading and I have no clue what I've read you ever read something and you realize you're not even there your brain is zoned out I realize okay I put it back you later years later I found out why it was white you guys know why it was white because the Sun it was in the Sun I was never used it was this in the front pickup truck holding down the papers is all it was for it really wasn't being used okay so that was my experience but after a while I started learning how to use the National to go so before we get to how to use it let's understand the structure and the style of the National two code you ready for this there we go number one there's a table of content and then you're going to have the code is broken down the chapters chapters subdivided into articles articles subdivided into parts parts are subdivided into sections then there's tables and figures then there's going to be exceptions this information or notes it's an annex and there's an index I didn't realize until just the last reading these last two slides there's a lot of sections of the National Electrical Code you know after been doing it for like 40 plus years and I don't even realize these things are constructed but when I first got started it would it was very intimidating so that's the layout of the National two code let's take a look at each of these items separately the table of content is on page 2 of the front of the codebook and it breaks down here chapter 1 chapter 2 it talks about the parts it talks about the article 100 article 110 and that's your table of content I don't expect you to understand a whole lot other than the no page 2 table of content let's move on to the next one then the codebook is broken down into chapters chapter 1 is your general chapter 2 is wiring and protection 3 is wiring methods chapter 4 is equipment chapter 5 is special occupant see special equipment special conditions chapter 8 is communication chapter 9 is tables I'm not saying this for you to be able to take a quiz and know what the chapters are about and I'd say I probably know the titles a mole of all the chapters but sometimes I get a little confused at times so it doesn't really matter I don't even know I just know that when I go to get to a section I need to know what chapter I'm going to be getting into the codebook and you'll see how that works out the next thing is to understand that the chapters are broken down into specific articles an example anything that's a 100 article 100 that is in chapter one it's a example article 250 rounding and bonding chapter 2 article 300 wiring chapter 3 I'm just giving an example of a common one article 430 motors chapter 4 has the classified locations chapter 5 article 500 swimming pools 680 chapter 6 remote control circuits chapter 7 725 is the article communication circuits is chapter 8 800 so code is broken into nine chapters there are articles within the nine chapters and as their title 101 10 chapter 1 250 242 10 chapter 2 400 410 425 I mean 430 chapter 4 so just kind of give you an idea you have chapters you have what it's called articles the next thing is that the chapters and then you have the articles articles are broken down into parts example part two is a class one circuit well if we got into chapter if we got into article 725 we would see that there's a part 1 general there's a part 2 that's class 1 1 there's a part 3 that's class 2 and it's a part 4 that's going to be class 3 so you take an article that's kind of big they're like you know this is big and it includes a lot of different things they'll break it down into individual parts now subdivision of the parts is going to be the actual code section an example article 90 is not in a chapter it's the introduction to the codebook 90.1 is called a section for the longest time I would use the reference of 90.1 or 250 that 122 I called it article 90.1 or I'd call it article 210 dot dot 50 to tell you story EC nm magazine as I started becoming a little well-known internet or nationally asking Mike would you come to New York City and would you record an audio of the changes to the national des code and of course nearly a young kid of ECM flying to New York City back in the 80s and I make so excited so I got the headset on I got the speaker I feel like I'm a rock star I'm singing a song I got the New York City all the Rican all the people running around the whole thing I'm speaking up talking about the changes and because I'm reading my books I'm saying the holes I get it all done and I mean I'm thinking I did a pretty good job I mean but it's still intimidating but I mean what an experience of live in New York City to record an audio of the changes we didn't have videos at that time this is before VHS I mean this is audio I get excited they call me up about a week later less than a week later this in might really appreciate all your effort we can't use any of the audio I said why not they say you know when you take a look at the slide you know when you were talking about 90.1 they said you said article 90 that one Joe McPartlin who was the Mike Holt of today he was the mic holder that day and I was a young guy coming in there and he said Joe McPartlin says you can't say night article 90.1 because it's not an article Mike it's section 90.1 and in every single reference you said the article on a mic how humiliating is that to be corrected in that capacity rather than somebody saying hey David it's not article 90 that one it's section like okay I appreciate that but mine was an extreme way of learning not to use the wrong term alright let's go a little further than that next thing is their tables in the code lots and lots and lots of tables and you know even on tables they have like like numbers this number one here is the number conductor total number so tables you have to slow down you have to be aware you have a highlighter you make notes in there you have your codebook you start customizing it so there's tables in the code there are exceptions lots and lots of exceptions they're identified by an exception there are italicized which means you have a basic rule listen yeah we know these rules apply but you know what in an existing dwelling unit guess what we're going to do a different set of conditions so we have exceptions to the section now this is a subsection because it's not a 90.1 it's a paren a 2 3 whatever the case may be informational notes lots and lots of notes are throughout the National two code if I have to do a search and find out how many informational notes are in the National decode and I don't know I'm going to guess it's probably around 500 but we're going to do a little search right now with the electronic version and find out what it is now what's an informational note is exactly what it says it's information purposes only it's not a requirement it just say listen you know what think about this or hey go check take a look at this or give this consideration or an example what we're talking about is this so it's not a regulation it's just a way to be able to inform us what it is okay let's take a look at this graphic and let's see what this says so we're talking about the code contains provisions that are considered necessary for safety so it's what the rule is telling us compliance with with it in proper maintenance results in an installation that is essentially free from a hazard but not necessarily efficient convenient or adequate for good service or future expansion of electric use so that's what the rule is about the same the code is for safety but do we have an idea how many informational notes are my quick search was 881 so there's 881 notes to the code here is the first note new code this is 90.1 be adequacy and the note says this hazards often occur because of overloading of wiring systems my methods or usage not in conformity with the code they're just telling you some information this occurs because the initial wiring did not provide for increases in the use of electricity an initial adequate instil and reasonable provisions for system changes provide for future increases in the use of electricity listen the coast is what this is for safety so the code is saying listen if you put something in you got to make sure that you put it in so that when it's system fails it sails that it fails in a safe mode that doesn't mean that if you do a calculation of a hundred and ninety five amps for a service that you shouldn't use a two hundred amps because join us we'll take care of 195 but the code says well information just so you know maybe you want to do a little bigger then 200 amps if your calculation 195 is information the next thing is an X's in the back and these are informational annexes again informational notes informational annexes is just information product safety standards Raceway fill examples types of construction tightening torques a DA standards and there are other informational annexes an example of an annex right here it says informational is that informative or informational that's an informative and it's an informative annex where the other ones were informational notes I just learned something I didn't catch the little subtle point there so this is just saying hey you know this informant annex is not a part of the requirements of this NFPA document but is included for informational purposes only so they give you some information in the back of the codebook that might be helpful to some individuals in certain times then we go to definitions definitions I primarily contain an article 100 and here's what it says this article contains only those definitions essential to the application of the code which means in general it's not intended to include commonly defined terms or commonly defined technical terms from related codes and standards and then it says in general only those terms that are used in two or more articles are defined an article 100 other definitions are included in the article in which they are used but may be referencing 100 so it's really important as a couple of things you recognize when you're trying to use the master code number one you have to complete an electrical Theory course because the National Tikku is the standard for the installation based upon the physics that take place and you have to understand the physics at a place so you have to understand electrical Theory before you can even attempt to understand the national code okay so that's the first thing you have to do that so once you know theory when you're trying to apply the code if you don't know the definition of terms an example many places and we can we even do a search here with insight there are a lot of places in the National t code that says the disconnect must be within sight the equipment must be within sight uh it'll say a continuous load or it shall be readily accessible if you don't know the the definition of the terms that's using by the code then you're just kind of like what does it mean by within sight and Brian how many within sight rules are there eight hundred and eighty eight hundred eighty times the code says something has to be within sight well if you don't know what it is you already screwed up eight hundred eighty rules because you're just trying to make up what you think it is and then in sight one hundred tells us this it's not you got to be able to see it but it can't be more than 50 feet away so if it's 75 feet away and you can still see it it's not within sight so we have to know the definition of the term so that's contain an article 100 but 100 made a reference that sometimes there's definitions that are contained within the individual article such as an article 406 which is what chapter four receptacles let's say the definition because later on the code is going to talk about tamper-resistant receptacle z' that are going to be installed in child care facilities well what's a child care facility well since there's requirements in 406 which is receptacles or tamper resistant receptacles and charge child care facilities but see child care facilities is only used in article 4 Oh sex so that definition will not be in 100 because it's only applicable to article 406 so let's take a look at that what is a child care facility a building or structure or portions thereof in other words it's not the whole building it could be a piece of the building for education supervisory or personal care services for more than four children seven years old or less well I have seven kids and there was a time I had five kids seven years old or less so in reality I guess I had a childcare facility just in our house there but it's talking about there are places where you're going to have kids and so therefore when you have children childcare facilities there are requirements in the National Electrical Code so we need to know article 100 definitions and then we need to realize their terms use in specific articles the last part of the code is going to be the index which is in the back of the National decode now index I think we all understand they are they're going to be alphabetized readily accessible article 100 let's talk about something else cranes and hoist six ten fifty one access the working space see working space we'd have to go down the working space so you can see some examples feeder and load calculations article 220 Ryan I just think it bears mentioning here that the index can be kind of frustrating the index is the terms as they're used in the National Electrical Code they're not necessarily what we might call things in the field they're not necessarily what we might order from the supply house they're not necessarily we even use terms incorrectly because we don't realize what they actually mean sometimes in the field you understand when you go to the index you're looking for something you can't find it it's not because it's not in there you probably don't know what it's called in the National Electric Code and that just takes some getting used to you know when you first get well I'm gonna talk about how to use the code in a second I'm just trying to talk about how the code is structure so sometimes I get I get so let me just go finish up that's the index let's go on now how to locate a specific requirement in the code you guys with me there how do I find something well you know that's really hard I mean it's really hard to find something in the National two code and the best way for you to learn how to find something national to code is to get our product that is the questions on there it's a practice questions book and the question starts you're wet in consecutive order and then it starts giving you some random order and then you start learning okay article 90 oh then you have some questions on definitions it's C you know it's that practical interaction by asking a question answering a question getting into your codebook marking and slowly like oh there's an article on motors it was if you're going to try to find an answer having to do with motors if you knew that motors was article 430 well then you you're already cut down that whole code book down that it I know it's in this section right here the code book if it had to do with receptacles probably okay it's going to be in 406 so number one step is you have to get a practice questions book and you're going to have to answer a lot of questions to get you into you can if you have never had any experience and you give this to anybody say okay where does the code say the spacing of receptacles on wall space well there's no way you're ever going to find that there's no way you can go to the index I'm sure you're not going to go to table and content you're going to have some experience first before you get into that will be going to say but I was just going to say you know when I first kind of got into the National Electrical Code it was really a curiosity more than anything I was younger maybe 15 16 years old it's at the supply house I think they had outdated versions of the code book cheap because the new version had come out and I bought one and I actually just started looking up the things that I was helping my journeyman do Oh we're gonna install receptacles I just started trying to figure out well where do you look in this book to find out about receptacles and I really didn't understand a lot of what I read but as I went on and I progressed through my career I always would go back to the book like okay well you know we're going to put in a high leg service here and I don't remember exactly what all the rules are on that so I try to look up some rules and I think over time you just start developing a familiarity that the questions certainly helped develop but it starts to become real life if you want to learn the code book vas I can tell you my total thing you get the practice questions book and you go through that and you answer every one of those questions you were peppering and finding little tiny things you're scratching this and that and it would take you forever for yet be able to learn but if you go through 3,000 questions you go to that whole book boom you got it so that's the first step okay let's take a look at the slide here you know the table of contents sometimes is that for as you gaining experience is one of the faster ways to find rules because you know there's a section having to do with overhead conductors in a service well then you go to table of content you know that it's services you look for find out what part is that in the table of content I mean and then you you just go there when you start going into the index now you're almost like Eric you like to say you start going into a rabbit hole and what I mean you start chasing this hole when you're chasing that hole and you're going here you're going that and there's nothing wrong with that because what happens like what you did Brian you're trying to find something with high leg are you trying to find something with receptacle let me tell you something member never found the answer you're looking for but you found a lot of rules about receptors which is like our looking and I'll never find what you're looking for you like well I see receptacles about this and there's receptacles about that and there's which is about that but you got to want didn't you got to want to get involved and you have to get involved but we have you have to get involved the next thing is the index we talked about that yeah and you know the last thing is experience listen you're not and you know what even myself I've been doing this now we're in 2016 I've been doing this since 1975 so it's 41 years don't think I don't have a problem finding things in the code book because I do have a problem finding things in a copic at times and you know sometimes I just go the electronic version of the code book and I'm like let me find this thing I'm like receptacle whatever night and I go the next one I go the next one or the next one I go next like ah I never would have found it there I would have thought about that so we do have electronic versions but the electronic versions are a great way to use one term and start finding out where is this term use wherever it is but I don't think most people do that index is okay and you can use that but you need experience and then you need to customize your code book Eric yeah I'm listening to you talk I'm listening to Brian talk and both of you are using the word receptacle quite a bit and what I mean to say is that if you're looking if you look if you want to look in the code book for receptacle you need to know that it's called a receptacle a lot of people call them outlet oh and so you know there's a there's a facility in northern New Mexico that calls relocatable power taps fat Phebe's and we got to talk about we're going to talk about slang terms and what you're saying is that look you better know what the technical term is that means you better understand article 100 because you're in the field I got to be careful I get in the slang terms yet let me let me go there I'm going to get there in a second when you customize your codebook you have to have tabs we haven't have tabs that are color-coded that actually matches our textbook so like the first chapter 110 is red if you go to our textbooks we're going to have red if you go to chapter 2 all the chapter 2 we're going to be Lu in our textbook so all our text would be blue and so you're going to tap and then of course let's go to the black ones the black ones is going to be for 10 for 10 for 22 for 20 for all the chapter fours in our textbooks in chapter 4 would all have been black black borders meaning there's a black border in our textbook I'll show you an example here in the textbook itself a text books have a border so we make it a point to try to make a little easier if you take a look at the edge here so when you go use your tabs there's an interaction between our programs and of course our textbook it makes it a little easier with all the different graphics that's associated with up with an item there so but that's about our book that's not about the codebook oh yes Bruce so I want to say one thing that this book to me when I first picked it up was huge and then everything Mike is explaining to you going through the questions going through my call buying his products it just shrinks the book down everything is just so so much smaller then you know you know I was so overwhelmed when I got into the code and then when I started studying the code everything started to get smaller and smaller and smaller I thought what I understood you know what I did at one time when the code book came in at loose-leaf I took all the papers out and I took everything out of my code book when you get a little bit knowledge that have nothing to do with anything I would ever do x-ray equipment there's snow melting equipment if I'm saying and I pulled everything out and I put it in the back of that particular section of the the lee of the loose leaf binder and so therefore all the most common rules I would ever deal with was in the front of the book so I was able to make my code book because in reality in practical terms I would say if you were going to lose sleep that probably you can make your code book one-third that size because there's so much in here that so you Niq so special that doesn't apply to almost most individuals all right so how to locate a specific rule david top number two in the in the country in 2016 top gun code competition what do you what do you do to try to find something actually I did exactly what you said in preparation I use whatever questions I can find had your questions and I went through and that's exactly how I learn to get myself through and familiarity with with the code anybody has any comments on how you find something that's topical you air like I said you know you've got to know the terms and I stress this so much with my students that you know if it's relocatable PowerTap get in the habit of calling it a relocatable PowerTap if it's if you're wanting to order receptacle get in the habit of calling and receptacle don't use slang terms it is so important otherwise you can't find anything yes notes David that's important too because that's probably 90% of the reason why people have grounding and bonding or bonding and grounding they get it all mixed up is because they got their terms all mixed up you know what and I'm not trying to plug my products and that is that the advantages of our training programs our books our DVDs are specifically designed for the electrical installer the person the electrical industry giving the tools and the knowledge and the understanding of both the electrical fundamentals the National decode the electrical calculations and the words you can specifically find it Bruce they're like treasure maps you have a treasure map Mike Holt he'll navigate you right to where you need to go Brian well you know I want to just take a second to talk about we're talking about tabs and customizing and and it's designed for the people that actually are using the book and I think the thing that I have learned the most since I've been here is this if you can't learn how to get the information out of the code book then the code book doesn't do you any good carrying it around leaving it on the dash you know we have little simple things we have guys that are taking our tabs and putting them and understand the national electric code books that are the instructions like that which is thing people are taking our tag tabs and actually tabbing the textbook textbooks and books now when they realize you for them to use our book the shirt so they're studying in our books right and they get to a section like ooh so they find the matching tab in their code book and now they can just open up both books they've got them side by side and they're able to go through and see oh this is what the code means because our language is designed so that somebody can understand in a very simple way what the requirements of the national extra code and I wasn't thinking about that but if you're trying to use the national two code you have to be able to understand what the national two code says yeah and that's where our strength is with all the illustrations and all the graphics if you don't have completed courses if you haven't seen our books you haven't done the DVDs then it's just as just a bunch of pages and documents and you don't even know what it's saying because you don't understand the context you don't understand the illustration you need to be able to have some tools to help you and that's part of understand - national educate right well in so coming at it from an instructor as an instructor and I've got students and I'm trying to prepare them for their journeyman's examination one of the biggest failings that I've seen in a lot of program offerings is that they're not preparing them using the National Electric Code and so you have somebody that learns some things that they really don't know how they relate to the code book and as you go through the books if you have the code book and you have our textbooks and our side-by-side you're actually learning how to use the National Electric Code and if you're going to take a masters exam or journeyman's exam actually preparing yourself for the exam every single time you open one of the books alright one last thing we're going to close it up having to do with the different interpretations by different individuals or arguing with somebody my experience is generally when people have a disagreement in the field or whatever the case would be they're actually not even using a code book they're sitting there just talk well I think this and you know while I think that back and forth back and forth the moment you're not using your actual neck the physical National to code book and having a discussion then you're never going to resolve that issue between the individuals so number one have the code book it also reasonable having conflict the individuals have no training electrical theory they don't even understand why would the NEC save this because they don't have the understanding of the physics you have to understand the physics before you can understand the nationalistic code and the third reason individuals have problems is because they don't have any real-world experience now one of the advantages of our training programs is we have this a most amazing set of graphics and we explain things in a simplest way that you're going to get an experience that you would never have received because you might not be doing that installation but by watching the DVDs by looking at the graphics by taking a look at the text and then getting your codebook by taking practice questions you're going to start building some confidence and you have to understand I'm talking to those you guys that are just getting started okay but guess what you are the next future leaders you're the one is taking the next generation mic host is going to be gone here and what I'm hoping in with my Colt and my Colt enterprises is to be able to provide the knowledge and the information and pass that baton on to the next generation so that you guys can do maybe a little better job than what I have and my generation is going to be so I don't want you sitting there thinking that none of this matters at all it really really matters because you're the one that's going to be taking the leadership role in the future and we're depending on you and I'm hoping that what we do as micro enterprises and everything that we do is completely dedicated that making sure we help you become better prepared and guess what happens we get better prepared you start getting those opportunities you start making more money you start feeling more confident and more importantly than all of that is you were providing safe electrical installations you don't want to do something and to kill anybody so I'm done with about how to use the NEC I'm sure we could do more but I'm going to stop it there but I'm going to ask our team members here that's helping us on this particular one any final comments that you like to say Bruce yeah don't let the inspector be your teacher oh don't let anybody be your teacher yeah absolutely anybody else all right well listen continue your quest we need leaders don't let people put you down then let them hold you back when I was a young person studying I was studying my codebook and I was practicing for the test guess what all the other trades not all but some other people do with me they laughed at me they mockney oh you think you're such a big shot Oh mr. NEC code of course they all took my classes later on so they could get their masters license but that's okay listen we want you to be successful we want to be there for you so god bless

Channel: MikeHoltNEC

Views: 59,499

Keywords: Mike Holt Enterprises, Trainer, Electrician, Teacher, Coach, Success, Development, Instructor, Professional

Id: OVTS2yDIFM4

Length: 29min 14sec (1754 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 09 2020