Exothermic Ground Rod

I am familiar with UL regs for other industrial fabrications. What is the UL reg being cited here for it being "approved"?

 

"Approved" means "Acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction". It has nothing to do with the UL's regs. It simply means that whoever is enforcing the NEC has given their blessing.

"Listed" means "Equipment, materials, or services included in a list published by an organization that is acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction and concerned with evaluation of products or services, that maintains periodic inspection of production of listed equipment or materials or periodic evaluation of services, and whose listing states that either the equipment, material, or service meets appropriate designated standards or has been tested and found suitable for a specified purpose."

The UL is not the only acceptable organization for listing. It's just the most popular.

 

Underwriter's Laboratories conducts tests on equipment and or components meant to be used by the public and certif

Thanks for beating me to the reply. I think it is interesting that bogus listing documentation...generally fake stickers have been applied recently to cheap knock off's of listed equipment and materials. Common ones have been electrical plugs and receptacles that can't withstand rated current without melting or distorting or wiring insulation that catches fire.

And by the way...UL is the most popular in this country because it is the oldest listing jurisdiction recognized in this country. At one time they were the only listing agency in this country.

 

The inspection departments authorize building to a certain standard. They would be the AHJ when it comes to adopted legal standards. They are not adopting laws for the benefit of the insurance companies. The insurance company can be, and many times also is an AHJ, or "Authority Having Jurisdiction". The insurance companies can adopt their own requirements for the purpose of deciding if something is insurable or not. In that case, the insurance company is an AHJ. That means its very possible to have two or more AHJ's that refer to the NEC and affect the owners of electrical installations.

 

I turned in a company that was using UL stickers on receptacles that could accept both 120 volts and 240 volt plugs. (Double T slots). They told me they did an investigation but said they couldn't tell me anything else. They did have me send them one of the receptacles, though, and told me that the receptacles were definitely not UL listed devices.

 

I hope so!! That's word for word from the NEC.

 

And they still list devices from days of old that are down right scary. Look close and you can see the UL imprints. These are still being sold. I bought a cleat socket from Lowe's for my collection a couple years ago. The adapter is a Leviton product available on line.

This is a cleat socket. There are NO covers for the screws. They are meant to be left bare and are for knob and tube wiring.



Two prong light socket adapters.



Three prong adapters that simply eliminate the grounding conductor. "Converts polarized 2-prong plug into a 3-prong plug Built-in grounding adapter UL Listed for indoor use only "

 

I guess as long as they still sell 2 prong plugs there will be a need for 2 prong receptacles. Some of my aquarium equipment is not only 2 prong but non polarized as well. It’s true for wall wart power supplies as well.

 

W1YW's first electronic experiment.... see prior post

 

The 2 prong plugs will fit nicely in a three prong receptacle. The only 'need' for 2 prong receptacles is replacing existing 2 prong receptacles where there is no grounding conductor. All your aquarium equipment and wall warts will fit into a three prong (slot actually) receptacle.

 

My first electrical shock was in placing the device end of an electrolux vacuum cleaner cord on my tongue while the wall plug was still in the receptacle. It had recessed prongs that my very young tongue could just reach. The short arc across my tongue was rather shocking. I had to do it at least twice to verify it was not a Fluke...man of science that I was! I couldn't understand my mother's response when I told her about it. I thought she would be interested in this unsafe condition. Instead I got the "DON"T EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!" response. I never did it again.

 

It's weird thing with UL. I used to be the guy who drew the UL specific drawings for Peelle Elevator Door (those big industrial elevator doors that open up and down with the big rubber seal between them). We used to get UL fire tests conducted to certify they could withstand fire and not let fire or heat get into/out of the shaft. They'd set-up one of our doors, concrete walls and all, in their entirety in their lab and blast them with fire for an hour or more. If heat didn't penetrate over a certain time, they'd put their "stamp of approval" on them and we could install any new design or revision in actual buildings. If we changed even the smallest part, we would have to submit new drawings for the entire design, showing all the changes, and have UL conduct an entire new set of tests. Kept me busy back in the day making hand drawn diagrams. (This was back before CAD).

EDIT: Thinking back on it now, it was a three-hour test while also being blasted with a fire hose of water on the other side. Crazy thing to watch. The whole door would glow red.

UL and NEC are totally different things, but both are utilized by insurance companies. NEC is an installation & building standard, UL is a testing and design proofing methodology and certification. Anything carrying the UL stamp have been tested at their lab, and are listed by them. Many companies fake it, but now with the internet you can check the validity of any product my manufacturer and model number (including revisions and brand variants). Before that it required volumes and volumes of books.

 

Wow, one of my earliest electrical memories is bringing home an aquarium air pump from school in the 3rd grade. It quit working and I knew I was able to fix the thing. (I had no idea what I was doing.) I plugged it in and laid it on the kitchen table, nothing happened. I took the thing apart and wiggled one of the wires. As I wiggled, the pump started working. And, since I was touching the bare wire, as it started working I received a huge electrical shock. The bad connection kept me from getting terminally zapped, I only received an intermittent pulse. That day I should have learned to unplug the thing you're working on! (Unfortunately, I learned that a number of times over the years.)

After unplugging the pump, a small blob of solder fixed that pump, brought it back to school, saved the fishies and I was the hero of the 3rd grade. I wish I had a video of that set of fireworks!!! Thanks for the great discussions and the kind words!

 

The NEC is actually published by the NFPA, a group formed by insurance companies. From Wiki:

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is a United States trade association, albeit with some international members, that creates and maintains private, copyrighted standards and codes for usage and adoption by local governments.[1] The association was formed in 1896 by a group of insurance firms.[citation needed] Its purpose was to standardize the then-new fire sprinklersystems.[citation needed] It claims to have 65,000 members.[2]