A Word from Jake

Until now you had to use a  2 pole breaker for a circuit with a common neutral.  GE now has given us a way to do the same thing with 2 single pole breakers using a handle tie instead.  Check out the attached PDF and see how you can protect a common neutral circuit without buying a 2 pole Arc Fault breaker.  Make sure you look at the diagram which shows how to wire the circuits using 2 single pole breakers instead of a 2pole Arc Fault breaker.  I can’t figure out how we did not know about this before it was published back in 2009?

Combination Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter – Selection and Application Guidelines and Technical|DET-719|generic

http://www.geindustrial.com/publibrary/checkout/DET-719?TNR=Application

To get this to work you have to type in DET-719 at the GE site.

That it for this week.

Jake

When installing a ceiling box that may be used for a fan, and you install a spare switch leg to that box. Such as 14/3 or 12/3 NM cable, the box shall be listed for support of a fan.  This requirement only applies to single and multi-family dwellings.  The code panel recognized that home owners and/or renters sometimes change out the light fixture and put a fan in its place.  So this requirement will help when this activity is done in a single or multi-family dwelling unit.

(F) Locked Electrical Equipment Rooms or Enclosures.
Electrical equipment rooms or enclosures housing electrical
apparatus that are controlled by a lock(s) shall be considered
accessible to qualified persons.

The breaker that is mount in a generator enclosure will be considered in compliance with this section only when it has a lock that is controlled with a key, and not an Allen wrench.   When the section was written it did not include an Allen wrench in the standard so it is not part of the code section.

So long as it is controlled by a key it will be incompliance with this section.