Work beginning on Wire size and OCPD Calculator
I have begun the JavaScript version of an improved wire size calculator. I wrote the original one in excel in 1999 in about six weeks time. It is at the electrician.com site under calculators. But I have noticed that this older Excel Version does not always open in IE for some reason.
There are numerous variables required for selecting the correct size conductor and OCPD using a computer program. As usual, 98 percent of the time the process is a very simple technique of using Table 310.16. But the other 2 per cent is very complex requiring the logical connection of continuous load, noncontinuous load, number of conductors in a cable or raceway, ambient temperature, conductor insulation temperature, the type of circuit, the length of raceway or bundled conductors, the termination temperature, the type of cable if used, the standard sizes of overcurrent protective devices, the ampacity tables, and of course whether the conductor is aluminum or copper. These requirements are located throughout the NEC making this an arduous task to do without a computer program. It is with awe and wonder that a computer program can do this process because in some instances the calculations have to be checked against themselves to determine if an additional calculation shall be performed.
It utterly amazes me that the people that write the NEC expect anyone to get all this right. Perhaps that is why there is so much redundancy and overkill in the NEC - so when errors are made, and they must be made often, buildings will not burn down from overheated conductors.
There are numerous variables required for selecting the correct size conductor and OCPD using a computer program. As usual, 98 percent of the time the process is a very simple technique of using Table 310.16. But the other 2 per cent is very complex requiring the logical connection of continuous load, noncontinuous load, number of conductors in a cable or raceway, ambient temperature, conductor insulation temperature, the type of circuit, the length of raceway or bundled conductors, the termination temperature, the type of cable if used, the standard sizes of overcurrent protective devices, the ampacity tables, and of course whether the conductor is aluminum or copper. These requirements are located throughout the NEC making this an arduous task to do without a computer program. It is with awe and wonder that a computer program can do this process because in some instances the calculations have to be checked against themselves to determine if an additional calculation shall be performed.
It utterly amazes me that the people that write the NEC expect anyone to get all this right. Perhaps that is why there is so much redundancy and overkill in the NEC - so when errors are made, and they must be made often, buildings will not burn down from overheated conductors.
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