Electrical Code (1 Viewer)

[SethH]

Howdy, I was hoping someone might be able to point me to the electrical code online. Is there a national code, or is it fully governed by the state or local government. If it helps at all I live in Blacksburg, VA 24060. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lee L]

The NEC is nationwide but is not available online (unless you are a member of the NFPA and a subscriber to their web code service). You can buy a paper copy from The National Fire Protection Association(the NFPA) or places like Amazon.

Now of course, even though the code is national, certain municipalities enforce different sections more vigorously thatn others and interpret things a little differently. Also ther are some local codes that are adjunct to the NEC and add a little here and there.

I did dig up this place with a quick search http://www.mikeholt.com/index.php?id=homegeneral . They have a forum dealing with code issues.

 

[SethH]

Thanks for the link and info. Here's basically what I'm looking for:

I recently moved into a very old rental house. Outlets are NOT grounded. My Dell laptop does not work without a ground (apparently the AC adapter sends some heat back through the ground and if the ground is not there it overheats and activates a safety circuit in the AC adapter). Anyway, there is no conduit behind the outlet so I can't ground it to the box. I've talked to the landlord about grounding 1 outlet so I can use my computer, even if I have to pay to have it done. But is it "up to code" to only ground one outlet without grounding others? For some reason I don't think it is, but perhaps I'm wrong. Any info would be great!

 

[Philip_G]

cheapest and best thing to do is go down and speak to an electrical inspector, find out which city office sells permits and go down and ask to speak with one, shouldn't be a problem

 

[Eric Kahn]

the house is "up to code" if it met the code when the last major electrical work was done, only exception that I know of is if you have BARE conductor knob and tube wiring, your outlets are most likly polorized which is a sort of grounding since the neutral wire is hooked to the ground buss in the circuit box (fuse box)
you are indeed allowed to ground one outlet

ask your landlord before bringing in an electrical inspector

if your power supply is truly dumping heat into the ground prong, try using a heavy extension cord between it and the outlet, would give plenty of ground wire to act as a heat sink, I am more leaning towards a defective power supply, my laptop's power supply is not even grounded and plugs into the wall with a wimpy piece of wire with a 2 prong plug, a power supply that used an outlet as a heat sink would violate the electrical code and the fire code, nowhere for the outlet to lose the heat except into the wall

 

[SethH]

Well, I've gone through 3 power supplies from Dell and they all do the same thing and they all work perfectly fine on grounded outlets. I plug it into a surge protector that has a 10 foot 14ga electrical cord and it still has the problem.

 

[Lee L]

Well, if that is truly the issue, try plugging it into a cord, then plug the cord into the surge protector. There is nothing of any real mass in a SP to dissapate any heat off the ground wire.