Mark C. Ode

As a home ages, an owner can take many steps to make it more energy-efficient and lower heating and cooling bills. Adding a UV-light glass coating to windows will keep sunlight out. Installing double- or triple-paned glass...

With the addition of new Section 725.144 and the accompanying Table 725.144 in the 2017 NEC covering transmission of power and data to a powered device comes the requirement for a special marking of the cable used for these...

at the 2019 NFPA Conference and Expo in San Antonio in June, we had a 17-hour marathon dealing with various code and standards that were up for adoption. I was most interested in the last NFPA document and the adoption of the...

Hardwired and battery-operated fire and smoke alarms for dwelling units have become more sophisticated in recent years, which vastly affects their compatibility with both wired and wireless smoke alarms. Many of these devices...

As an electrical contractor in the 1970s and 1980s, I received intriguing phone calls from homeowners and commercial customers with strange electrical problems. I could troubleshoot some of these issues over the phone. Others...

For the past few national electrical code cycles, there has been a growing concern in the electrical industry with a phenomenon called electric shock drowning (ESD) occurring in and around marinas, boatyards, floating...

A very knowledgeable electrical contractor in the Phoenix area recently emailed me, stating he was having a National Electrical Code (NEC) discussion with a local electrical inspector. The discussion involved the sizing of...

A two-story home can be a dream come true when a family is young but could become a nightmare as family members age and the owners reach their 70s and 80s. Two-story homes are usually built with the bedrooms on the second...

In the past few weeks, I have been involved with two separate installations where aluminum branch circuits were used in dwelling units. One was a single-family dwelling, and the other was individual apartments in a multi-unit...

Recently, I received a phone call from an electrical contractor friend who was discussing with an electrical inspector the differences of branch circuits supplying swimming pool equipment versus swimming pool equipment feeder...

A friend who had just purchased a 10-year-old house asked me whether he and his wife should spend money to have his electrical contractor install all the newest safety devices. We reviewed the existing equipment so I could...

With the advent and ease of online shopping, many homeowners are purchasing their own products. But is a homeowner able to distinguish a safe product that is listed and labeled from a counterfeit product that has bypassed...