The educational portion of our July meeting was provided by Warren Shill of UL. He presented a brief history of the development of the AFCI as well as valuable information about how the devices are tested to verify compliance with the standard. He reviewed the NEC requirements and changes that have been made to those requirements since the introduction of the AFCI to the code.

Our annual July meeting was held Saturday, July 12 at Bellevue City Hall. By acclimation a new slate of officers and directors for the chapters were elected. Our special guest James Imlah, NW Section International President swore in our new officers and directors.

2008/200 Term
Officers
President - Clell Mason
1st Vice President - Rand Jones
2nd Vice President - Ben Saclo
Secretary/Treasurer - Ken Copeland

Directors
Jr Past President - Warren Shill
Inspector Member - Don Millar
Inspector Member - Bill Eckroth
Associate Member - Jim Simmons
Associate Member - Joe Andre

NW Inspector Representative - Chris Porter
NW Associate Representative - Jim Simmons

The inspector members of the chapter voted to put forward a proposal taken from our WAC rule 296-46B 230 40
(note incorrect WAC reference to the NEC) The proposal would modify the existing language of NEC 230.90(A) Exception No. 3 in this way:

Exception No. 3: Two to six circuit breakers or sets of fuses shall be permitted as the overcurrent device to provide the overload protection. The sum of the ratings of the circuit breakers or fuses shall be permitted to exceed the ampacity of the service conductors, provided the calculated load does not exceed the ampacity of the service conductors and the ampacity of the service entrance conductors is marked on the equipment.


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The inspector members of the chapter voted to put forward a proposal taken from our WAC rule 296-46B 220 003
The proposal would modify the existing language of NEC 220.12 in this way:

A unit load of not less than that specified in Table 220.12 or the locally adopted energy code for occupancies specified therein shall constitute the minimum lighting load.

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The inspector members of the chapter voted to put forward a proposal taken from our WAC rule 296-46B 051(B)5)
(note incorrect reference to NEC section in WAC) The proposal would modify the existing language of 210.52(C)(5) in this way:

5) Receptacle Outlet Location. Receptacle outlets shall be located above, but not more than 500 mm (20 in.) above, the countertop. Receptacle outlets rendered not readily accessible by appliances fastened in place, (deleted text:appliance garages), sinks, or rangetops as covered in 210.52(C)(1), Exception, or appliances occupying dedicated space shall not be considered as these required outlets.


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The inspector members of the chapter voted to put forward a proposal taken from our WAC rule 296-46B 210 008(B)(1)
The proposal would modify the existing language of NEC 210.8(B) in this way:

Add new: (6) Wet Locations.

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The inspector members of the chapter voted to put forward a proposal taken from our WAC rule 296-46B 022(3)
The proposal would modify the existing language of 110.26 in this way:

Each disconnecting means shall be legibly marked to indicate its purpose and designation of circuit source panelboard source that supplies the disconnect, unless located and arranged so the purpose is evident.

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The April 12, 2008 Meeting was held in Forest Park at the Lions Hall on Saturday. Christine Porter gave an IAEI presentation on making NEC Code Proposals. The program covered not only the mechanics of submitting proposals but also how to create "good" proposals. The second half of the program worked through several NEC proposals taken from our WAC rules to be put forward for the 2011 Edition of the NEC. These will be forwarded on to the NW Section, to be voted on by the section at the NW Section meeting in September.

Take a look at the proposals that were voted to be put forward.

Please note: I have not included the substantiations, just the revised, deleted, or new wording)

The first meeting in 2008 will be on Saturday, January 12. It will be held at the Tacoma Power & Light Auditorium located at 3628 South 35th Street in Tacoma WA. The subject will be Grounding. Come and learn more about the essentials of Grounding and Bonding electrical installations from our own former Chief Electrical Inspector, Phil Simmons.

The upcoming meeting in October will be held in the Tumwater area and will be about Selective Coordination. The presenters are from GE and have many years of experience in the electrical industry. Please join us to hear more about this requirement in the NEC for selective coordination.

On Saturday, July 14 2007 our chapter elected a new slate of directors and they were sworn in by Jim Hinrichs. Our new directors are as follows:

2007/2008 Term
Officers
President - Warren Shill
1st Vice President - Clell Mason
2nd Vice President - Rand Jones
Secretary/Treasurer - Ken Copeland

Directors
Jr Past President - Dave Buttice
Inspector Member - Don Millar
Inspector Member - Bill Eckroth
Associate Member - Jim Simmons
Associate Member - Joe Andre

NW Inspector Representative - Bob Thomas
NW Associate Representative - Chris Porter

The July meeting was held at the new Bellevue City Hall facility on Saturday. Mark Earley from NFPA gave two informative presentations, one on Fire Pumps and the second one on Hazardous Locations. Our thanks go to the NFPA for providing the means for Mark to travel out here to help us achieve a uniform understanding of the NEC.

He also showed us all how to view online any NFPA Standard! To do this first, go to NFPA.org
From the menu bar just below the NFPA logo pull down the "Codes and Standards" tab to "Document list and code cycle informtion". Then click on any NFPA standard you wish to see. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the "Preview this document " link. Read the license agreement, click agree and in the new screen click on the "open" document link. You can view and read the document online, but of course you cannot cut & paste, or print the document. To do that you must purchase the document which can be done by clicking on the "online catalog" link. Here is the NFPA Web Site: NFPA.org

The location for our July meeting has changed from the Issaquah Book Depository to Bellevue City Hall. Directions can be found here: Directions

The Electric League of the Pacific Northwest is once again hosting an electrical expo! The Northwest Energy Expo and conference in downtown Seattle will have seminars on a wide variety of topics of interest to the electrical community as well as over 200 exhibitors. Mark your calendar for October 17 and 18th!

The July meeting is our annual meeting, in addition to our educational content we will also be electing new directors and representatives at this meeting. If you would like to participate let contact Ken Copeland, our chapter secretary here.

We have added this new feature to our web site, it is our blog section. We will use this to post a short description of our chapter meetings or updates about our chapter. There is also a place to post your comments on our site now, just click on the comment link and tell us what you think!