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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. Anthony – James 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

Top Five Coffee Shops

Standards Wisconsin

University of Wisconsin System Financial Report | $6.4B (2023)

Democrat Wisconsin Secretary of State refuses to remove RFK from ballot

“Liberal woman WILL NOT date conservatives” – Bombshells

Coffee

Heather McDonald: The feminization of the American university is all but complete

Heather McDonald: Why have young women been so prominent in the recent campus chaos?

Facilities Planning & Management

The Breakdown of Higher Education: How It Happened, the Damage It Does, and What Can Be Done (John Ellis 2020)

Student-run coffee shop

Standards Ohio

Artist: Bob Dylan (featuring Leonard Cohen)

John Marshall students to run coffee shop

“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

Frenglish

CSA Group: Product Certification & Standards Development

CSA Group Z243.200:92 (R2021) Canadian keyboard standard for the English and French languages

McGill Endowment Fund Annual Report 2023 | $1.9B

Historical Epistemology | Michel Foucault

Standards January: Language

McCall MacBain Arts Building

Université McGill | Montréal Québec

Canadian Parliament Debate on Standards Incorporated by Reference

Danse de recherche sur le cancer

Canadian College

VIU: FM 98.3 Pamplona

CLICK IMAGE TO ACCESS LIVESTREAM

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History of Radio Regulations

Fellows Coffee Shop

“I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk

that keep the darkness at bay.”

— J.R. R. Tolkein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” completed his studies at the University of Birmingham in 1915. He graduated with first-class honors in English Language and Literature. After graduation, Tolkien went on to serve in World War I before embarking on his distinguished career as a writer and academic.

Roger Scruton “Why Intellectuals are Mostly Left”

Coffee

How Coffee Loves Us Back

The Perfect Cup of Coffee

Best Coffee Spots Near Campus

Social Experiment: Giving College Students Coffee

Bruin Café

 

Human Resources 100

Office in a Small City 1953 Edward Hopper

 

“Choose a job you love,

and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Kong Fuzi, Confucius

 

Today we dwell on titles that inform management of the education industry in the United States specifically; but also more generally in global markets where the education industry is classified as a Producer and a User of human resources.  It is an enormous domain; likely the largest.

Human Resources 100 covers skilled trade training in all building construction disciplines.

Human Resources 200 covers the range of skills needed to manage the real assets of educational settings — school district properties, college and university campuses

Human Resources 300 covers higher level management of these settings.  (Representative Organization Charts)

Human Resources 500 covers everything else

Human Resources 500

Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Engineering a Fair Future: Why we need to train unbiased AI

Recommended Reading:

“The Human Side of Enterprise” 1960 by Douglas McGregor | MIT Management Sloan School

University of Chicago Press: Readings in Managerial Psychology

 

 

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Lee Webster

Virginia Commonwealth University: “Self Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Paris Review: The Myth of Self-Reliance

Using ANSI Human Resource Standards to Create Business Advantage in the Workplace

Colleges and Organizational Structure of Universities

Apprenticeships: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers

Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

“Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber” James Damore

 

Qualification Standard for Power Plant Operators

EPRI is an independent, nonprofit organization that is primarily funded by its member utilities. These member utilities are typically electric power companies, and they contribute financially to EPRI to support its research and development activities.

While EPRI is not directly funded by the government, it does collaborate with various government agencies on research projects and receives funding for specific initiatives through government grants and contracts. Additionally, some of EPRI’s research and development efforts align with government priorities in areas such as renewable energy, environmental sustainability, and grid modernization.

Qualification Standard for Power Plant Operators

EPRI 2024 Research Portfolio: Building on Success to Drive Progress

Electrical inspectors (See NFPA 1078) typically do not have jurisdiction over electrical power plants. Electrical power plants, especially large-scale utility power plants, are subject to much more stringent regulations and oversight than regular electrical installations. The responsibility for inspecting and ensuring the safety and compliance of power plants falls under various government agencies and organizations.

In the United States, for example, power plants are subject to federal regulations set forth by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for nuclear power plants or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fossil fuel power plants. Additionally, state regulatory agencies and utility commissions may have their own specific requirements and oversight for power plants within their jurisdictions.

Power plants typically undergo rigorous inspections and audits to ensure compliance with safety, environmental, and operational standards. These inspections are conducted by specialized teams of engineers, experts, and representatives from relevant regulatory bodies and utilities.

While electrical inspectors may not have jurisdiction over power plants, they play a crucial role in inspecting and ensuring the safety of electrical installations in other settings, such as smaller power generation facilities (i.e. district energy plants) that are not exempted by self-assessment charters granted to many large university power plants.

Gallery: School, College & University Electric Systems

 

Certifying the Certifiers

Accreditation and certification are relatively modern concepts that have evolved over time as formalized methods of establishing and maintaining standards in various fields. The concept of accreditation or certification, as it is understood today, may not have existed in the same form in the distant past. However, there were likely individuals or groups who played roles similar to that of accreditation or certification specialists in history, although the formalized systems of accreditation or certification that exist today were not present.

For example, in ancient times, there were guilds and associations in various professions that set standards for their members, oversaw training and apprenticeship programs, and ensured the quality of their work. These guilds and associations, which existed in various civilizations such as ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, could be seen as early forms of accreditation or certification bodies.

Similarly, in religious contexts, there were individuals who held authority to certify or accredit others. For instance, in medieval Europe, there were religious orders, such as the Knights Templar, who were known for their specialized skills and were often called upon to certify the expertise of others in their areas of knowledge, such as architecture or finance.

In the field of education, ancient universities and centers of learning, such as the ancient Indian Nalanda University or the Islamic madrasas, could also be seen as early forms of accreditation or certification bodies, where scholars were recognized and certified based on their knowledge and expertise.

However, it’s important to note that the formalized systems of accreditation or certification that we are familiar with today, with standardized processes, documentation, and oversight, have developed over time and are relatively modern phenomena. The history of accreditation or certification is complex and multifaceted, with various practices and traditions that have evolved and influenced the modern systems we have today.

 

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Ann Arbor, MI 48104 USA

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