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National Electrical Definitions

NFPA Glossary of Terms

International Building Code Chapter 2: Definitions

International Electrotechnical Commission: Electropedia

Because electrotechnology changes continually, definitions (vocabulary) in its best practice literature changes continually; not unlike any language on earth that adapts to the moment and place.

The changes reflect changes in technology or changes in how the technology works in practice; even how the manufacturers create adaptations to field conditions by combining functions.   Any smart electrical component has a digital language embedded in it, for example.

Consider the 2023 National Electrical Code.  Apart from many others the NEC will contain a major change to Article 100 (Definitions); the subject of elevated debate over the past three years.

When we refer “language” we must distinguish between formal language, informal language, colloquial language and dialect which may differ the language spoken, language written at the office and language used on the job site.  “Terms of art”

2026 National Electrical Code | CMP-1 Second Draft Report 

FREE ACCESS: 2020 National Electrical Code (NFPA 70)

2023 NEC Public Input Report CMP-1 (868 pages)

2023 NEC Second Draft Public Comment Report (914 pages)

Are these terms (or, “terms of art”) best understood in context (upstream articles in Chapters 4 through 8) — or should they be adjudicated by the 14 Principals of Code Making Panel 1?   The answer will arrive in the fullness of time.   Many changes to the National Electrical Code require more than one cycle to stabilize.

Code Making Panel 1 has always been the heaviest of all NEC panels.  As explained n our ABOUT, the University of Michigan held a vote in CMP-1 for 20+ years (11 revision cycles) before moving to the healthcare facilities committee for the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee.  Standards Michigan continues its involvement on behalf of the US education facility industry — the second largest building construction market.  There is no other pure user-interest voice on any technical committee; although in some cases consulting companies are retained for special purposes.

To serve the purpose of making NFPA 70 more “useable” we respect the Standards Council decision to make this change if it contributes to the viability of the NFPA business model.  We get to say this because no other trade association comes close to having as enduring and as strong a voice:  NFPA stands above all other US-based SDO’s in fairness and consideration of its constituency.  The electrical safety community in the United States is a mighty tough crowd.

If the change does not work, or work well enough, nothing should prohibit reversing the trend toward “re-centralizing” — or “de-centralizing” the definitions.

Public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 Edition will be received until August 28, 2024. 

Technical Committees meet during the last half of October to respond to public comment on the First Draft of the 2026 National Electrical Code. 

Electrical Contractor: Round 1 of the 2023 NEC: A summary of proposed changes (Mark Earley, July 15, 2021)

Electrical Contractor: 2023 Code Article and Definition Revisions: Accepting (NEC) change, part 2 (Mark Earley, March 15, 2022)

Rightsizing Electrical Power Systems

Standards Michigan, spun-off in 2016 from the original University of Michigan Business & Finance Operation, has peppered NFPA 70 technical committees writing the 2016-2026 National Electric Code with proposals to reduce the size of building premise feeder infrastructure; accommodating the improvements made in illumination and rotating machinery energy conservation since the 1980’s (variable frequency drives, LED lighting, controls, etc.)

These proposals are routinely voted down in 12-20 member committees representing manufacturers (primarily) though local inspection authorities are complicit in overbuilding electric services because they “bill by the service panel ampere rating”.  In other words, when a municipality can charge a higher inspection fee for a 1200 ampere panel, what incentive is there to support changes to the NEC that takes that inspection fee down to 400 amperes?

The energy conservation that would result from the acceptance of our proposals into the NEC are related to the following: reduced step down transformer sizes, reduced wire and conduit sizes, reduced panelboard sizes, reduced electric room cooling systems — including the HVAC cooling systems and the ceiling plenum sheet metal carrying the waste heat away.   Up to 20 percent energy savings is in play here and all the experts around the table know it.   So much for the economic footprint of the largest non-residential building construction market in the United States — about $120 billion annually.

The market incumbents are complicit in ignoring energy conservation opportunity.  To paraphrase one of Mike Anthony’s colleagues representing electrical equipment manufacturers:

“You’re right Mike, but I am getting paid to vote against you.”

NFPA Electrical Division knows it, too.

University of Michigan

 

Rightsizing Commercial Electrical Power Systems: Review of a New Exception in NEC Section 220.12

Michael A. AnthonyJames R. Harvey

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Thomas L. Harman

University of Houston, Clear Lake, Texas

For decades, application of National Electrical Code (NEC) rules for sizing services, feeders and branch circuits has resulted in unused capacity in almost all occupancy classes. US Department of Energy data compiled in 1999 indicates average load on building transformers between 10 and 25 percent. More recent data gathered by the educational facilities industry has verified this claim. Recognizing that aggressive energy codes are driving energy consumption lower, and that larger than necessary transformers create larger than necessary flash hazard, the 2014 NEC will provide an exception in Section 220.12 that will permit designers to reduce transformer kVA ratings and all related components of the power delivery system. This is a conservative, incremental step in the direction of reduced load density that is limited to lighting systems. More study of feeder and branch circuit loading is necessary to inform discussion about circuit design methods in future revisions of the NEC.

CLICK HERE for complete paper

University of Houston

2026 National Electrical Code Workspace

Health 400 | OB-GYN

National Center for Health Statistics: Birth Data Files

Today we break down regulations, codes, standards and open-source literature governing the safety and sustainability of university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery facilities.  Because of the complexity of the topic we break down our coverage:

Health 200.   Survey of all relevant codes, standards, guidelines and recommended practices for healthcare settings.

Health 400.  All of the above with special consideration needed for obstetrics, gynecological and neonatal clinical practice and research.

Today we confine our interest to systems — water, power, telecommunication and security; for example — that are unique to campus-configured, city-within-city risk aggregations.  Electrotechnologies (voltage stability, static electricity control, radio-interference, etc.) in these enterprises are subtle, complex and high risk.  Sample titles from legacy best practice literature in this domain are listed below:

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: Levels of Maternal Care

Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services standards for maternal safety

Since our interest lies in the habitable spaces for these enterprises we usually start with a scan of the following titles:

International Building Code Section 407 (Institutional Group I-2) identifies requirements specific to healthcare settings, covering aspects such as fire safety, means of egress, and smoke compartments. Maternity and obstetric facilities within hospitals fall under this classification.

K-TAG Matrix for Healthcare Facilities

NFPA 70 National Electrical Code Article 517

NFPA 99 Healthcare Facilities Code

NFPA 101 Life Safety Code Chapters 18 & 19

ASHRAE 170 Ventilation of Healthcare Facilities

ASHRAE 189.3: Design, Construction and Operation of Sustainable High Performance Health Care Facilities

Relevant Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers research

Towards Deeper Neural Networks for Neonatal Seizure Detection

A System to Provide Primary Maternity Healthcare Services in Developing Countries

Deep Learning for Continuous Electronic Fetal Monitoring in Labor

Reorganizing of University Hospital of Oran’s operating theatre: Simulation approach

Finally, we collaborate with the IEEE E&H Committee on the following IEC committee projects from IEC/TC 62 Electrical equipment in medical practice:

– Common aspects of electrical equipment used in diagnostic imaging equipment

– Equipment for radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and radiation dosimetry

– Electromedical equipment for neonatal care

 

More

Journal of Healthcare Management Standards: Operational Resilience of Hospital Power Systems in the Digital Age

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

Health care cost as percentage of Gross Domestic Product for six representative nations.

Association of Academic Health Centers

International Conference on Harmonization: The ICH guidelines provide guidance on the development of pharmaceuticals and related substances, including clinical trials, drug safety, and efficacy.

Animal Welfare Act and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

Good Laboratory Practice: GLP is a set of principles that ensure the quality and integrity of non-clinical laboratory studies. It ensures that data generated from non-clinical laboratory studies are reliable, valid, and accurate.

International Code Council Representation of Interests

University of Chicago

Lingua Franca

“The English genius is essentially eclectic;

it borrows from everywhere and from every time.”

— Peter Ackroyd | 2004  Albion: the origins of the English imagination

“The Tower of Babel” 1563 | Pieter Bruegel the Elder

 

“Wer von Fremdsprachen nichts versteht, kennt seine eigenen nichts.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

Disagree with someone and cannot persuade them?  Do you need to hide your intransigence or ulterior motive? Then change the basis of discussion by changing the subject with a different definition.

This happens routinely in political discourse and rather frequently in best practice discovery and promulgation in building construction and settlement infrastructure standards[1].  Assuming all parties are negotiating in good faith resolution may lie in agreement on a common understanding of what a satisfying agreement might look like.

Admittedly, a subtle and challenging topic outside our wheelhouse[2] hence the need to improve our organization of this topic starting with today’s colloquium; with follow on sessions every month.

Large Language Models

Glossary: Education

Examples of Variations in Translations of Homer’s Odyssey

Banished Words 2024

Today we limit our discussion to language changes in the catalogs of ANSI-accredited standards developers whose titles have the most influence over the interoperability of safety and sustainability technologies that create and sustain the built environment of education communities

American Institute of Architects: Definitions for Building Performance 

ASHRAE International

Language Proficiency

International Code Council

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

National Fire Protection Association

Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?

Using tasks in language teaching

print(“Python”)

Love and Mathematics

The Guy Who Over-Pronounces Foreign Words

Every building construction discipline has its own parlance and terms of art.

This is enough for a one-hour session and, depending upon interest, we will schedule a breakout session outside of our normal “daily” office hours.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΕΣ

Starting 2024 and running into 2025 we will break down this topic further, starting with construction contract language — Lingua Franca 300:

“Standard” History

History of the English Speaking Peoples

Language Proficiency

Geomatics

Large Language Models

Travels with the Sundry Folk

Reflections on the verb “to be”

Banished Words 2024

Forbidden Words

Using tasks in language teaching

William Tyndale: The Father of Modern English

“Music does an end run around language” — James Taylor

Electropedia: The World’s Online Electrotechnical Vocabulary

Standard Definition: “Developing” Country

The Guy Who Over-Pronounces Foreign Words

ANSI Acronymn Dictionary

Footnotes:

(1) The United States government defines a “Green Building” as a building that has been designed, constructed, and operated in a way that reduces or eliminates negative impacts on the environment and occupants. The government has established various standards and certifications that buildings can achieve to be considered “green.”

The most widely recognized green building certification in the United States is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, which is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). To achieve LEED certification, a building must meet certain standards related to sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

In addition to the LEED certification, there are other programs and standards that can be used to measure and certify the sustainability of buildings, such as the Green Globes rating system and the Living Building Challenge.

Overall, the goal of green building is to create buildings that are not only environmentally sustainable but also healthier, more comfortable, and more efficient for occupants, while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. By promoting green building practices, the U.S. government aims to reduce the environmental impact of the built environment and move towards a more sustainable future.

(2) The U.S. Green Building Council is a conformance organization.  See the discussion our ABOUT for background on incumbent stakeholders.

History of the English Speaking Peoples

Michigan Central

Since so much of what we do in standards setting is built upon a foundation of a shared understanding and agreement of the meaning of words (no less so than in technical standard setting) that time is well spent reflecting upon the origin of the nouns and verbs of that we use every day.   Best practice cannot be discovered, much less promulgated, without its understanding secured with common language.

Word Counts

 

2024 Alumni Awards

Educational Settlement Finance

Giovanni Paolo Panini, An architectural capriccio with figures among Roman ruins

The post-pandemic #WiseCampus transformation requires significant capital to meet the sustainability goals of its leadership.  Campuses are cities-within-cities and are, to a fair degree, financed in a similar fashion.  Tax-free bonds are an effective instrument for school districts, colleges and universities — and the host community in which they are nested — for raising capital for infrastructure projects while also providing investors with, say $10,000 to $100,000, to allocate toward a tax-free dividend income stream that produces a return in the range of 2 to 8 percent annually.

An aging population may be receptive to investment opportunities that protect their retirement savings from taxation.

Once a month, we walk through the prospectuses of one or two bond offerings of school districts, colleges and universities and examine offering specifics regarding infrastructure construction, operations and maintenance.  We pay particular attention to details regarding “continuing operations”. Somehow the education industry has to pay for its green agenda.  See our CALENDAR for the next Finance colloquium; open to everyone.

The interactive map provided by Electronic Municipal Market Access identifies state-by-state listings of tax-free bonds that contribute to the construction and operation of education facilities; some of which involved university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR INTERACTIVE MAP

 

If you need help cutting through this list please feel free to click in any day at 11 AM Eastern time.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our hope page.  We collaborate with subject matter experts at Municipal Analytics and UBS.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Administration & Management, Finance, #SmartCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, John Kaczor, Liberty Ziegahn

*We see the pandemic as a driver for a step-reduction in cost in all dimensions of education communities.  We coined the term with a hashtag about two years ago.

*College and university infrastructure projects are classified with public school districts under the rubric “municipal bonds” at the moment.  CLICK HERE for more information.

 


More:

Duke Law Review:  Don’t ‘Screw Joe the Plummer’: The Sausage-Making of Financial Reform

An Expanded Study of School Bond Elections in Michigan

Student-run coffee shop

Standards Ohio

Artist: Bob Dylan (featuring Leonard Cohen)

There’s a new coffee shop in Cleveland, and it’s in John Marshall High School. The “Lawyers Café” serves lattes, healthy fruit smoothies, and Rising Star coffee, and it’s completely student-run. While they brew up the drinks as baristas and handle the budgets on the finance team, all of the scholars are getting hands-on job skills and learning what it takes to run their own small business.”

American Enterprise Institute: One Nation, Under Lawyers

CLICK HERE

President George H. Bush’s prescient warning to graduates about the destabilizing dangers of “political correctness” to the American experiment in a constitutional republic.  Escalated by the presidencies of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden; accelerated by multinational social media conglomerates, free speech — globally — remains challenged and threatens the return to the tribalism that doomed ancient civilizations.  Higher education in America will have the heaviest hand in this transformation.

“Ironically, on the 200th anniversary of our Bill of Rights, we find free speech under assault throughout the United States, including on some college campuses. The notion of political correctness has ignited controversy across the land. And although the movement arises from the laudable desire to sweep away the debris of racism and sexism and hatred, it replaces old prejudice with new ones. It declares certain topics off-limits, certain expression off-limits, even certain gestures off-limits.”

Engineering Research: Coffee Science

Coffee

Readings

Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman

Schumpter’s Theory of Creative Destruction

VIU: FM 98.3 Pamplona

CLICK IMAGE TO ACCESS LIVESTREAM

MORE

History of Radio Regulations

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