The purpose of this Code is the practical safeguarding of persons and property from hazards arising from the use of electricity. This Code is not intended as a design specification or an instruction manual for untrained persons.
This Code contains provisions that are considered necessary for safety. Compliance therewith and proper maintenance result in an installation that is essentially free from hazard but not necessarily efficient, convenient, or adequate for good service or future expansion of electrical use.
Informational Note: Hazards often occur because of overloading of wiring systems by methods or usage not in conformity with this Code. This occurs because initial wiring did not provide for increases in the use of electricity. An initial adequate installation and reasonable provisions for system changes provide for future increases in the use of electricity.
The requirements in this Code address the fundamental principles of protection for safety contained in Section 131 of International Electrotechnical Commission Standard 60364-1, Electrical Installations of Buildings.
Informational Note: IEC 60364-1, Section 131, contains fundamental principles of protection for safety that encompass protection against electric shock, protection against thermal effects, protection against overcurrent, protection against fault currents, and protection against overvoltage. All of these potential hazards are addressed by the requirements in this Code.
This Code covers the installation and removal of electrical conductors, equipment, and raceways; signaling and communications conductors, equipment, and raceways; and optical fiber cables for the following:
- Public and private premises, including buildings, structures, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, and floating buildings
- Yards, lots, parking lots, carnivals, and industrial substations
- Installations of conductors and equipment that connect to the supply of electricity
- Installations used by the electric utility, such as office buildings, warehouses, garages, machine shops, and recreational buildings, that are not an integral part of a generating plant, substation, or control center
- Installations supplying shore power to ships and watercraft in marinas and boatyards, including monitoring of leakage current
- Installations used to export electric power from vehicles to premises wiring or for bidirectional current flow
This Code does not cover the following:
- Installations in ships, watercraft other than floating buildings, railway rolling stock, aircraft, or automotive vehicles other than mobile homes and recreational vehicles Informational Note: Although the scope of this Code indicates that the Code does not cover installations in ships, portions of this Code are incorporated by reference into Title 46, Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 110—113.
- Installations underground in mines and self-propelled mobile surface mining machinery and its attendant electrical trailing cable
- Installations of railways for generation, transformation, transmission, energy storage, or distribution of power used exclusively for operation of rolling stock or installations used exclusively for signaling and communications purposes
- Installations of communications equipment under the exclusive control of communications utilities located outdoors or in building spaces used exclusively for such installations
- Installations under the exclusive control of an electric utility where such installations
- Consist of service drops or service laterals, and associated metering, or
- Are on property owned or leased by the electric utility for the purpose of communications, metering, generation, control, transformation, transmission, energy storage, or distribution of electric energy, or
- Are located in legally established easements or rights-of-way, or
- Are located by other written agreements either designated by or recognized by public service commissions, utility commissions, or other regulatory agencies having jurisdiction for such installations. These written agreements shall be limited to installations for the purpose of communications, metering, generation, control, transformation, transmission, energy storage, or distribution of electric energy where legally established easements or rights-of-way cannot be obtained. These installations shall be limited to federal lands, Native American reservations through the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs, military bases, lands controlled by port authorities and state agencies and departments, and lands owned by railroads.
Informational Note to (4) and (5): Examples of utilities may include those entities that are typically designated or recognized by governmental law or regulation by public service/utility commissions and that install, operate, and maintain electric supply (such as generation, transmission, or distribution systems) or communications systems (such as telephone, CATV, Internet, satellite, or data services). Utilities may be subject to compliance with codes and standards covering their regulated activities as adopted under governmental law or regulation. Additional information can be found through consultation with the appropriate governmental bodies, such as state regulatory commissions, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission.
The authority having jurisdiction for enforcing this Code may grant exception for the installation of conductors and equipment that are not under the exclusive control of the electric utilities and are used to connect the electric utility supply system to the service conductors of the premises served, provided such installations are outside a building or structure, or terminate inside at a readily accessible location nearest the point of entrance of the service conductors.
This Code is divided into the introduction and nine chapters, as shown in Figure 90.3. Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 apply generally. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 apply to special occupancies, special equipment, or other special conditions and may supplement or modify the requirements in Chapters 1 through 7.
Chapter 8 covers communications systems and is not subject to the requirements of Chapters 1 through 7 except where the requirements are specifically referenced in Chapter 8.
Chapter 9 consists of tables that are applicable as referenced.
Informative annexes are not part of the requirements of this Code but are included for informational purposes only.
FIGURE 90.3 Code Arrangement.
This Code is intended to be suitable for mandatory application by governmental bodies that exercise legal jurisdiction over electrical installations, including signaling and communications systems, and for use by insurance inspectors. The authority having jurisdiction for enforcement of the Code has the responsibility for making interpretations of the rules, for deciding on the approval of equipment and materials, and for granting the special permission contemplated in a number of the rules.
By special permission, the authority having jurisdiction may waive specific requirements in this Code or permit alternative methods where it is assured that equivalent objectives can be achieved by establishing and maintaining effective safety.
This Code may require new products, constructions, or materials that may not yet be available at the time the Code is adopted. In such event, the authority having jurisdiction may permit the use of the products, constructions, or materials that comply with the most recent previous edition of this Code adopted by the jurisdiction.
Mandatory rules of this Code are those that identify actions that are specifically required or prohibited and are characterized by the use of the terms shall or shall not.
Permissive rules of this Code are those that identify actions that are allowed but not required, are normally used to describe options or alternative methods, and are characterized by the use of the terms shall be permitted or shall not be required.
Explanatory material, such as references to other standards, references to related sections of this Code, or information related to a Code rule, is included in this Code in the form of informational notes. Such notes are informational only and are not enforceable as requirements of this Code.
Brackets containing section references to another NFPA document are for informational purposes only and are provided as a guide to indicate the source of the extracted text. These bracketed references immediately follow the extracted text.
Informational Note: The format and language used in this Code follows guidelines established by NFPA and published in the NEC Style Manual. Copies of this manual can be obtained from NFPA.
Nonmandatory information relative to the use of the NEC is provided in informative annexes. Informative annexes are not part of the enforceable requirements of the NEC, but are included for information purposes only.
To promote uniformity of interpretation and application of this Code, formal interpretation procedures have been established and are found in the Regulations Governing the Development of NFPA Standards.
For specific items of equipment and materials referred to in this Code, examinations for safety made under standard conditions provide a basis for approval where the record is made generally available through promulgation by organizations properly equipped and qualified for experimental testing, inspections of the run of goods at factories, and service-value determination through field inspections. This avoids the necessity for repetition of examinations by different examiners, frequently with inadequate facilities for such work, and the confusion that would result from conflicting reports on the suitability of devices and materials examined for a given purpose.
It is the intent of this Code that factory-installed internal wiring or the construction of equipment need not be inspected at the time of installation of the equipment, except to detect alterations or damage, if the equipment has been listed by a qualified electrical testing laboratory that is recognized as having the facilities described in the preceding paragraph and that requires suitability for installation in accordance with this Code. Suitability shall be determined by application of requirements that are compatible with this Code.
Informational Note No. 1: See requirements in 110.3.
Informational Note No. 2: Listed is defined in Article 100.
Informational Note No. 3: Informative Annex A contains a list of product safety standards that are compatible with this Code.
Plans and specifications that provide ample space in raceways, spare raceways, and additional spaces allow for future increases in electric power and communications circuits. Distribution centers located in readily accessible locations provide convenience and safety of operation.
It is elsewhere provided in this Code that the number of circuits confined in a single enclosure be varyingly restricted. Limiting the number of circuits in a single enclosure minimizes the effects from a short circuit or ground fault.
For the purpose of this Code, metric units of measurement are in accordance with the modernized metric system known as the International System of Units (SI).
SI units shall appear first, and inch-pound units shall immediately follow in parentheses. Conversion from inch-pound units to SI units shall be based on hard conversion except as provided in 90.9(C).
The cases given in 90.9(C)(1) through (C)(4) shall not be required to use hard conversion and shall be permitted to use soft conversion.
Where the actual measured size of a product is not the same as the nominal size, trade size designators shall be used rather than dimensions. Trade practices shall be followed in all cases.
Where material is extracted from another standard, the context of the original material shall not be compromised or violated. Any editing of the extracted text shall be confined to making the style consistent with that of the NEC.
Where industry practice is to express units in inch-pound units, the inclusion of SI units shall not be required.
Where a negative impact on safety would result, soft conversion shall be used.
Conversion from inch-pound units to SI units shall be permitted to be an approximate conversion. Compliance with the numbers shown in either the SI system or the inch-pound system shall constitute compliance with this Code.
Informational Note No. 1: Hard conversion is considered a change in dimensions or properties of an item into new sizes that might or might not be interchangeable with the sizes used in the original measurement. Soft conversion is considered a direct mathematical conversion and involves a change in the description of an existing measurement but not in the actual dimension.
Informational Note No. 2: SI conversions are based on IEEE/ASTM SI 10-1997, Standard for the Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modern Metric System.