Electical Contractor

In the January 2012 issue of Campus Safety Magazine, Robin Hattersley-Gray reported from a 2011 survey stating that “more than half of university, hospital and K–12 school district fire protection professionals rate system maintenance (57 percent) and false alarms (53 percent) as two of their top fo

Some time ago, psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger made an astonishing discovery. “Incompetent people don’t know they are incompetent,” they concluded.

In a far-less-than-robust economy, we find many owners deferring moving to newly purchased or constructed facilities. Rather, they choose to renovate their existing buildings. Obviously, this process constricts the amount of work available.

Happy New Year! Even though we are only a few weeks into the new year, NFPA celebrated 2012 several months ago with the introduction of the ninth edition of NFPA 70E, the Standard for Electrical Safety in the Workplace.

Anyone routinely involved with the installation, maintenance and testing of fire alarm systems is aware of the need to ensure the audibility of fire alarm system notification appliances.

Most professional contractors are comfortable advising what building owners should include in an electrical design project; the contractors’ expertise is based on their years of experience and knowledge of the National Electrical Code.

Conducting a fire alarm system acceptance test in front of a fire official can prove daunting, even when the system passes muster. But doing any form of fire alarm system testing without having the proper tools is downright foolish.

Today, casinos are being built nationwide—this construction is not limited to locales in Nevada and New Jersey. However, we still follow fire and building code requirements that were radically changed by deadly fires in Las Vegas casinos close to 30 years ago.

Electrical construction has always been a dangerous profession, so finding ways to make the work less hazardous is certainly the goal of the National Electrical Code (NEC); Underwriters Laboratories; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; NFPA 70E, the Standard for Electrical Safety in t