Throughout the plans there will be phrases such as “Contractor shall notify the engineer of any changes or modifications that differ from these construction drawings” or “Consult the electrical engineer before making any variations from these city approved construction drawings”.
A lot of thought goes into a final set of plans. Many things that the electrician might not even be thinking about have been considered and thought out as the plans are being prepared for submittal to the city for approval.
Whether its luminaire (light fixture) type/performance and the illumination level at the walking surface of the egress path, or the type of conduits and raceways that will be installed to maintain a fire rating; the best practice is to always stick to the approved plans.
When the inspector arrives for an inspection, the inspector is expecting to see electrical work that matches exactly what is on the city approved plans. Occasionally something in the plans will be incorrect and both the electrical engineer and the city plans examiner will have missed it but most of the time the plans will be drawn to comply with the codes.
Here is an example of a situation no electrician wants to be in:
Back in 2010 when I was an electrical inspector in one of the western states, I decided to lay my eyes on a recently approved set of plans from the senior plans examiner for the city. I wanted to familiarize myself with these plans since I would be the assigned electrical inspector for this specific project. The project was a hospital, and I knew it would be very technical.
I immediately noticed that the electrical engineer had specified the following for this project:
I immediately knew what the electrical engineer was trying to accomplish and since all conduits would be installed overhead, other than site lighting, I did not expect to be called out to inspect any underground conduit for many months until the site lighting was to be installed.
Interestingly enough, two weeks after the job began, the electrician scheduled an underground conduit inspection. When I arrived at the job site, I noticed immediately that there was miles of Schedule 40 PVC conduit installed, of every possible size between ¾ inch and 4 inch.
The electrician disregarded the notes in the plans from the engineer and figured he would do it faster and cheaper than what was specified. Unfortunately, before a single wall had been erected, this electrician had made a decision that would cost him his business.
When the plans were being drawn, the electrical engineer made the above specifications for several reasons:
Requiring all raceways to be magnetic, run overhead instead of underground, and to follow the wall lines accomplishes several things.
If the electrician simply requested further information from the electrical engineer before placing the order and installing the underground PVC conduit, the engineer would have explained the importance of sticking to the plans and the electrician would still be in business.
Even if the electrician ignores the plans altogether and installs a different code compliant wiring method or fixture, there may still be a valid reason that the electrical engineer wanted the installation a certain way.
Which of the following is a good practice when running an electrical project?
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