Page 60 - May-Jun 19
P. 60
SAFETY CORNER
Focus on Your
Customer With
an Eye on Safety
By Thomas Domitrovich, P.E.
ustomer wants and needs all reviewing an installation with the NEC® 90.1(B), which speaks to adequacy. We
too often get forgotten as we in mind. This refers to the fact that they are reminded here that the NEC® contains
get too obsessed with meeting look at a system as it is designed and requirements necessary for safety and
National Electrical Code® installed. They are not there to look that compliance will give you a system
C(NEC®) requirements. We need into the future with regard to how the free from hazard but not necessarily one
to be as obsessed about meeting our system may or may not change with that is efficient, convenient, or adequate.
customer wants and needs as we are with time. On the other hand, the designer
meeting what, in reality, is a bare minimum must put on the hat of the “Expector” to The following are some areas where
for electrical safety. It may shock you to ensure the demands of the installation your customers’ wants and needs may
learn that a system designed to meet the and the customer are met over time. exceed the bare minimum for safety. Use
minimum requirements of the NEC® may these as a stimulus to your own thoughts
not be adequate for the application. This Section 90.1 tells us that the purpose of in other areas not addressed here.
article will discuss a few key areas where this Code is the practical safeguarding of
your design may need to exceed the bare persons and property from the hazards
minimum requirements of the NEC®. arising from the use of electricity. This
section includes a sentence that says, LOAD CALCULATIONS
The electrical inspecting community must “This Code is not intended as a design
have a mindset of being “Inspectors” specification or an instruction manual for The infrastructure of the electrical system
and not “Expectors” when it comes to untrained persons.” A little further we find is not something that is changed often.
When we size distribution transformers,
58 Insights Magazine | May/June 2019 | www.ieci.org
