February 14, 2022 • 20 mins
With the 2021 Canadian Electrical Code (25th Edition) now in effect (in Alberta), we thought this was a great time to re-visit our first episode of the show. We are chatting with David Myers about some of the biggest changes coming to the new edition, plus discuss the logistics and importance of taking a code updating course.
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Episode Transcript
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Jason Cox (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Watt's the Word, an electrical
industry Podcast. I'm Jason Cox,and along with Zack Hartle,
we're having relevantconversations with members of
our electrical community. OnFebruary 1, the Alberta
government formally adopted theCanadian electrical code 25th
edition, Zack, and I thought itwas a good idea on this episode
(00:23):
for us to go back and revisitour conversation we had with
Dave Meyers. Dave is anelectrical instructor. And he
teaches the What's New in thecode course. And Dave is going
to tell us some of thehighlights of this new edition
of the code. So take a listen.
And remember that any permit youtake out February 1 and beyond
is on that new 25th edition.
(00:49):
Take a listen. And we'll talk toyou soon.
David Myers (00:53):
Hello, folks, thanks for the intro. Yeah,
let's get started. All right. So
Jason Cox (00:59):
Dave, when I looked at this new code book briefly,
I've been in the trade now for Ithink it's 25 years. And so
these code books haveprogressively gotten bigger and
bigger and bigger, the bindingshave changed. And they've been
pretty similar for the lastcouple of years. But I looked at
this new codebook. And I wasinitially excited because it was
(01:21):
last page numbers, I did realizeit was missing missing the
index. But then I kind of lookedat it a little more carefully.
And it looks like either I'mgetting older, or some of that
text is getting smaller in someof the tables.
David Myers (01:36):
Yeah, the way they printed the tables is a little
different than the 21 book. Ihaven't noticed it quite as much
just because I've been using thesoft copy for almost everything.
But yeah, there's there'sespecially you know, the new
table six, if you've seen thatone? Sure. I designed a few
questions based on that table.
And Holy smokes, I got threedifferent answers to the same
(01:58):
question all three times. Andthat's because I was doing it,
you know, or I was finding thewrong spot in the table. Because
the new table six, if youhaven't seen it, is a solid
block of numbers. And it's easyto just, you know, point to the
wrong spot and end up with thewrong answer. So definitely some
changes in how the tables look.
(02:22):
I think the font remain the samefrom the 2018 book, if I
remember, right, I think theychanged fonts from 15 to 18.
Jason Cox (02:32):
Yeah, the real numbers look very similar, like
I without really examining it,but I did notice some of the
organization of the tables andthe font size is clearly
different than some of thosetables. And the way that they're
laid out now was a littledifferent, too. So reluctantly,
wearing glasses now andfollowing like you said, with a
(02:53):
ruler to make sure that I'mfollowing the same column. Yeah,
David Myers (02:57):
well, for how much we use table six, even in the
field, right table six, ifyou're, if you're not familiar
is the the table we use to sizeconduits to fit wires in very
commonly used in the fields verycommonly used at school. You
know, some highlights across thetable to make sure you're on the
right line and right columnwould be would be well served
(03:17):
there for sure. All right, so
Zack Hartle (03:19):
we've got table six has changed. I think what what
else matters, you know, whatelse? What are the big changes
that we are looking into? Right?
I mean, you are, as youmentioned, teach the What's New
in the code course, but what arethe big ones that are going to
affect? I guess, everydayelectricians, you know,
David Myers (03:35):
you bet. So, if this will be a very short, you
know, very just a hey, heads up,these are the changes, you know,
and if you do want all of thechanges and how they work and
calculation examples, you know,any your listeners, I would
recommend taking a cold updatingcourse, there's quite a few on
offer. If you're a masterelectrician in Alberta, you're
(03:58):
going to have to take one, buteven if you're not even if
you're a journeyman or a veryinterested in apprentice journey
person or very interestedapprentice, there's lots of
these courses on offer. Safeoffers one. It's called the
What's New in the code, if yousearch for it on state's
website, it's about six hours,there's a little quiz at the
(04:21):
end, we cover every meaningfulchange in the whole codebook.
For here, I've just sort of gonethrough and said, Okay, look,
these are the ones that affectthe most people. And so I'm not
gonna go through the rulenumbers or any of that stuff.
I'm just gonna say, hey, headsup, this is coming. February
2022 is when it's adopted inAlberta and enforce so any
(04:44):
permits pulled after that date.
This is the stuff that you guysshould be aware of. So first
things first, we got floodrequirements throughout section
two, section six section 26.
They've defined a flood hazardzone, very, very similar to the
requirements that have have beenin Calgary since 2013. So now
they're in our electoral code.
So just a heads up that that'swhere you can find those
(05:08):
requirements now, and it's stillup to the municipality as to
whether or not somethingrequires flood mitigation, but
it is listed in code. Anotherthing that came up is table 39,
which was a strange table forsizing residential services and
feeders they've deleted thatthey've gotten rid of it. In
regards to residentialpanelboards, there was a big
(05:31):
archaic rule in Section eightfor a whole pile of stuff,
they've deleted it andsimplified that, they simply say
you need a certain number ofempty spaces leftover at the end
of the job. Easy, the number ofoutlets per circuit has changed.
So in the past, it was 12. Nonstop, and that was that now
it's, you can have moredepending on the type of
(05:54):
overcurrent device you have. Soyou can get more than 12 outlets
on a on a 20 amp circuit, forexample. There's a few other
allowances in there. There'ssomething that we should all be
aware of. And we should all beasking people abouts, if you
read in Section 12, it lookslike it requires ft six flame
test six Lumix in the in coldair returns. So last I checked
(06:17):
Lumex was ft four I think sojust something that needs to be
asked there in the in thememorandum of revision in the
code discussions that go intothese changes. They did say that
there was no change in intent,but in the wording of the rule,
it certainly looks to have havechanged. So you guys will need
to be having some discussionsabout the type of Lumex that you
(06:41):
run through cold air returns inhouses. So table 19, they've
completely changed that as well.
They deleted it, rewrote it, theold table 19 had 39 or 37 notes
at the bottom. There are nownone. So it's much better and
much simpler to use. Forresidential, there's one really
(07:01):
big one, when you're runningLumix down the side of a stud,
for example, to a three gangswitch or something like that,
you now have to keep that Lumexback 32 millimeters from the
front edge from the drywall edgeof a stud. So if you know a two
by four is about 84 millimeterswide, take 32 from each side,
(07:21):
you're left with about one inchin the middle of it, you can
staple 24 millimeters or so inthe middle of that you can
staple so a four gang switch athree gang switch anything where
you got a lot of wires goingdown the same stud space, I do
believe there are bracketsavailable, but you'll have to
buy those brackets now. So foryou residential folks out there,
(07:45):
that's going to be a big one forus for sure. With that they've
put in a relaxation for Lumexand conduits if you're out there
doing a lot of hot tubs orsomething like that, and you
want to run the number six and aconduit where it leaves the
house in the 21 codebook it'svery clearly worded that you can
whereas in the 18 codebook itsort of pretty well says that
(08:09):
you can't.
Conduit sizing has not changedin terms of what size conduit
you'll get for the most part butthere's no longer a quick lookup
for conduit sizing we used to beable to use table six just
straight up, plunk your fingerdown you can get eight wires and
a three quarter inch and justoff you go there is now a three
(08:29):
table requirements and thecalculation required every time
you size conduit. So that willbe a bit of a frustration. Of
course when I say three tables,one of them is table eight it's
always 40% Pretty much but youknow that's not true. If you
have two wires in a conduitthough it's it's different.
Right? So a little bit moreinvolved for for conduit size.
(08:52):
barns, livestock buildings, theclassification has been very
stringently identified inSection 22. So if you're doing a
lot of farm work or rural work,just be very aware of what's
happened with that. There wasapparently some fires and and a
lot of lost livestock. And sothey've really stringently
worded how they've done thatnow. Secondary suites, there has
(09:15):
been some panelboard and branchcircuit relaxations for
secondary suites. So, again,pretty similar to what we've
been doing in the City ofCalgary, but now it's in our
codebook. For you largerresidential and commercial
folks, every 15 or 20 ampreceptacle outside requires GFCI
so all your car stalls, all thatstuff that didn't need them in
(09:37):
the past. You're going to needGFCI protection on that stuff.
So that's a big one for a lot ofcompanies out there. The
lighting requirements in Section30 For dwelling units you need a
light in the bedroom mutilate inthe living room, all that stuff.
It's all gone deleted. Thatdoesn't mean the requirements
are gone. They were duplicatedrequirements from the building
(10:01):
code. So just a heads up inregards to that, you still need
all those lights in the sameplaces, you just can't find
where in the codebook, it tellsyou to put them. And then sort
of an interesting one. I don'tknow how many people this will
affect, but I want to kind ofget the word out and have a
discussion with as many peopleas I can about it. They've taken
(10:24):
all the battery requirements,storage batteries from section
26 and move them to Section 64.
Section 64 Being renewableenergy systems are you an
uninterruptible power supply orUPS is not a renewable energy
system. So there's norequirements go to section 64
For that, yet, those still use alot of batteries. And so as of
right now, there's reallynowhere in the codebook for how
(10:47):
to install batteries forsomething that's not a renewable
energy system. So just somethingthat I want to get the word out
there and get people thinkingabout and start asking some
questions so that we can getsome answers on that and, and
things like that. So those are,those are the ones that I sort
of picked out that that willaffect the most people.
(11:10):
Obviously, there are hundredsand hundreds of changes from the
18th to the 21 book. Andobviously, there's more
technical wording that needs tobe said about all those things
that I mentioned, I just wantedto sort of throw them out.
Zack Hartle (11:29):
Absolutely, it's, uh, it's interesting. I mean, I
remember working out in thefield, and new code books always
came out. And you just you onlyheard about things as they
mattered. So I think that yourpoint about you know, let's get
the discussion going and earliertalked about, you know, getting
more involved and potentiallytaking some courses right to get
to keep yourself educated,right, especially as we're, you
(11:49):
know, definitely in a little bitof a different economic time to
have that little bit educationand knowledge definitely cannot
hurt. So,
David Myers (11:57):
yep. And it's, it all looks good on a resume. And
it all looks, you know, it'ssomething that people in
interviews want to hear. I thinkeverybody wants interested,
dedicated employees that are,you know, going outside of the
norm to keep themselves currentin the industry. And with things
that are happening, those arethe people that you want on
(12:19):
site, those are the people thatyou want around you.
Jason Cox (12:21):
So Dave, when you start a what's new in the code
course, or code updating course,what's the process that's
required to kind of get yourselfready to, to understand and
explain that information to yourto your students?
David Myers (12:36):
Sure, you, you start by taking five years right
off the top of your life, andyou go from there. Basically,
the first step when a newcodebook comes out, is to learn
and understand the changes. Andthe reason that the changes
exist. There's no sense tryingto implement changes in courses
or changes in exams until youknow, a what the change is be
(13:00):
how it works, and see why thechange was made. So that's the
very first step is just, youknow, hit the books, run some
calculations, talk to some otherpeople, you know, go on CSAs
website and pull the meetingminutes and sort of see the
discussion behind all thisstuff. And figure out where this
change came from. The next stepis to identify problem areas. So
(13:23):
in general, section 12, for 21has had a lot of changes. So any
question that relates back toSection 12, or that uses section
12, needs to be identified. Sowhen I say questions, I mean
exam or quiz bank questions andthings like that. And then after
that, it's identifying theindividual questions. And that
(13:45):
is probably the longest part ofthe whole process, believe it or
not, because some question thatdoesn't look like it has
anything to do with a changedepends entirely upon it. So you
pretty much have to work everynew question through the new
codebook. You know, then it'sactually editing the question
and verifying that the editswere successful and what they're
(14:06):
supposed to be. And then, youknow, you start the same
process, again, with anysupplemental activities,
worksheets, workbooks, anymodules that might be being
used, that can be edited by byus, the institution. And then of
course, it's making all theedits and implementing them and
running through them with thestudents. And invariably, we'll
(14:29):
run through them with studentsthat are much more intelligent
than we are and I maintain thathappens, every single class that
I have, and they will findthings that that we have missed
and we go through anotherprocess to catch those and to
make sure that there's nothingelse that's left outstanding.
You know, fortunately inAlberta, we have a year from
(14:50):
when the codebook is publisheduntil we put it in force. And
from a college perspective, atleast from a school perspective.
We have another eight Monthsafter that before we start with
the new code book. So we do havetime in between the code books,
but with a three year codecycle, it's pretty much a year
and a half of making theseedits, and then another six
(15:14):
months of going through themwith the students, and then you
get a year of not having toworry about it until the new
code book comes out. So it's afairly constant thing for those
of us that are doing code.
Jason Cox (15:27):
That three year cycle, it's it's a real kick in
the pants there, isn't it? Yeah,
David Myers (15:31):
well, and nowadays, you know, the, the amount of
changes in code is always verysignificant. I was involved in
code much less in the in theearly 2000s, because I was in
the field and things, but Idon't remember the changes in
code, being as in depth as theyare from book to book as they
are now. You know, and I couldcertainly be wrong about that.
(15:54):
But I feel like they're, they'recoming out with code books
faster, and they're changingthem more. And so it just ends
up being a lot of work from ourperspective. And it ends up
being a lot of work for peoplein the field, too, because
they're the ones that areinstalling these things in
different situations and findingthe problems that come up with
them. Hey, I did this, this iswhat the rule says, I don't
(16:16):
think they knew about thissituation when they wrote it.
And the rule doesn't work. Thelast three years, we've been
dealing with a specific problemwith farm services, and armored
conduits, because there is noway in code to deal with that.
And so that's been a lot ofconversation, have a lot of
inspector conferences and thingslike that. Obviously, it wasn't
(16:39):
their intent to miss it. Butthey're writing a codebook at a
desk with lots of experiencevery capable, qualified people
to do so. But I maintain thatthere is not one electrician on
the planet that has seen it all.
It's too big of a trade. Andit's you know, so with a three
year code cycle, and with allthese changes, it just leads to
(17:03):
a lot of these things that comeup that seemed to last for quite
some time after the book isimplemented. Nice. So
Zack Hartle (17:15):
my question with the What's New in the code
course, I know this course isfor me, Master electricians need
to take out what's new in thecode course in order to keep
their master certificate inAlberta active? What is there
like a certification processthat you go through when you
actually build that course thatthe CSA says yep, this is makes
this course a valid, relevant,licensed course? I guess? That's
(17:39):
correct.
David Myers (17:39):
Yep. So the safety codes Council of Alberta
requires that any safety codescount any SEC master
electricians take an updatingcourse to stay current with
code. They know if you you cango to their website to find the
courses that they have approved.
So once the course isconstructed, and built, it's
(18:00):
issued to the safety codesCouncil. They review it for
content and quality. And theysend back any changes that they
would like made, and you sendthe changes back to them. And
then of course, assumingeverything goes well, they will
certify your course. And so ifyou are, if you're interested in
code, you can take any what'snew in the code course. But if
(18:23):
you are a master in Alberta whoneeds to renew, you have to take
one of the ones that areapproved by the safety codes
Council.
Zack Hartle (18:32):
Yeah, great in that process. Like I mean, we're,
we're coming on July here. Iassume you've been working on
that that's a couple monthprocess to you know, take the
codebook go through the changes,look at them Memorandum of
revisions, build a course submitit. Right. So that's quite the
process. So pretty impressive.
David Myers (18:51):
It is yeah, it took normally there's a few of us
that work on it. But this time,you know, with the pandemic, and
with everyone working from home,it ended up you know, I did
pretty well, everything I had aI had some good health, some
good insights, and some peoplethat I could go to with a lot of
questions, but the actualbuilding of the course. You
(19:13):
know, I built this one thisyear, and it did, it took just
about three months, by the timeit was approved and ready to go
Zack Hartle (19:20):
plus five years off the top of your life. So
David Myers (19:23):
there's that, you know, but I don't have to pay
for that till later. So
Jason Cox (19:30):
you know, these three years could be tough on you
every three years. The goodthing about the three years that
like you were saying, David,it's starting to almost build a
routine with our industry peoplehave to come in and realize they
have to continually train andupgrade to keep current with the
code. I tend to agree with youin the past, it seemed that you
could go a couple of code cycleswithout there being any dramatic
(19:51):
changes. So So maybe you'relooking at eight years between
training, right? So so maybethis is maybe there's a silver
lining out of The US
David Myers (20:00):
would agree with that. Definitely.
Zack Hartle (20:03):
That wraps up our episode on the 2021 Canadian
electrical code changes talkingabout what is new in the code.
Thank you so much for coming tolisten today. As always, please
reach out to us on Instagram orFacebook. Leave us a review on
Apple podcasts or Spotify. Youhave yourselves a great day. And
we'll see you next month wherewe're talking with Dan Olson
(20:25):
from Careers the nextgeneration. Thanks a lot.
Remember, keep yourself safe outthere and if you can someone
else too.
Hello, and welcome to Watt's the Word, an electrical
industry Podcast. I'm Jason Cox,and along with Zack Hartle,
we're having relevantconversations with members of
our electrical community. OnFebruary 1, the Alberta
government formally adopted theCanadian electrical code 25th
edition, Zack, and I thought itwas a good idea on this episode
(00:23):
for us to go back and revisitour conversation we had with
Dave Meyers. Dave is anelectrical instructor. And he
teaches the What's New in thecode course. And Dave is going
to tell us some of thehighlights of this new edition
of the code. So take a listen.
And remember that any permit youtake out February 1 and beyond
is on that new 25th edition.
(00:49):
Take a listen. And we'll talk toyou soon.
David Myers (00:53):
Hello, folks, thanks for the intro. Yeah,
let's get started. All right. So
Jason Cox (00:59):
Dave, when I looked at this new code book briefly,
I've been in the trade now for Ithink it's 25 years. And so
these code books haveprogressively gotten bigger and
bigger and bigger, the bindingshave changed. And they've been
pretty similar for the lastcouple of years. But I looked at
this new codebook. And I wasinitially excited because it was
(01:21):
last page numbers, I did realizeit was missing missing the
index. But then I kind of lookedat it a little more carefully.
And it looks like either I'mgetting older, or some of that
text is getting smaller in someof the tables.
David Myers (01:36):
Yeah, the way they printed the tables is a little
different than the 21 book. Ihaven't noticed it quite as much
just because I've been using thesoft copy for almost everything.
But yeah, there's there'sespecially you know, the new
table six, if you've seen thatone? Sure. I designed a few
questions based on that table.
And Holy smokes, I got threedifferent answers to the same
(01:58):
question all three times. Andthat's because I was doing it,
you know, or I was finding thewrong spot in the table. Because
the new table six, if youhaven't seen it, is a solid
block of numbers. And it's easyto just, you know, point to the
wrong spot and end up with thewrong answer. So definitely some
changes in how the tables look.
(02:22):
I think the font remain the samefrom the 2018 book, if I
remember, right, I think theychanged fonts from 15 to 18.
Jason Cox (02:32):
Yeah, the real numbers look very similar, like
I without really examining it,but I did notice some of the
organization of the tables andthe font size is clearly
different than some of thosetables. And the way that they're
laid out now was a littledifferent, too. So reluctantly,
wearing glasses now andfollowing like you said, with a
(02:53):
ruler to make sure that I'mfollowing the same column. Yeah,
David Myers (02:57):
well, for how much we use table six, even in the
field, right table six, ifyou're, if you're not familiar
is the the table we use to sizeconduits to fit wires in very
commonly used in the fields verycommonly used at school. You
know, some highlights across thetable to make sure you're on the
right line and right columnwould be would be well served
(03:17):
there for sure. All right, so
Zack Hartle (03:19):
we've got table six has changed. I think what what
else matters, you know, whatelse? What are the big changes
that we are looking into? Right?
I mean, you are, as youmentioned, teach the What's New
in the code course, but what arethe big ones that are going to
affect? I guess, everydayelectricians, you know,
David Myers (03:35):
you bet. So, if this will be a very short, you
know, very just a hey, heads up,these are the changes, you know,
and if you do want all of thechanges and how they work and
calculation examples, you know,any your listeners, I would
recommend taking a cold updatingcourse, there's quite a few on
offer. If you're a masterelectrician in Alberta, you're
(03:58):
going to have to take one, buteven if you're not even if
you're a journeyman or a veryinterested in apprentice journey
person or very interestedapprentice, there's lots of
these courses on offer. Safeoffers one. It's called the
What's New in the code, if yousearch for it on state's
website, it's about six hours,there's a little quiz at the
(04:21):
end, we cover every meaningfulchange in the whole codebook.
For here, I've just sort of gonethrough and said, Okay, look,
these are the ones that affectthe most people. And so I'm not
gonna go through the rulenumbers or any of that stuff.
I'm just gonna say, hey, headsup, this is coming. February
2022 is when it's adopted inAlberta and enforce so any
(04:44):
permits pulled after that date.
This is the stuff that you guysshould be aware of. So first
things first, we got floodrequirements throughout section
two, section six section 26.
They've defined a flood hazardzone, very, very similar to the
requirements that have have beenin Calgary since 2013. So now
they're in our electoral code.
So just a heads up that that'swhere you can find those
(05:08):
requirements now, and it's stillup to the municipality as to
whether or not somethingrequires flood mitigation, but
it is listed in code. Anotherthing that came up is table 39,
which was a strange table forsizing residential services and
feeders they've deleted thatthey've gotten rid of it. In
regards to residentialpanelboards, there was a big
(05:31):
archaic rule in Section eightfor a whole pile of stuff,
they've deleted it andsimplified that, they simply say
you need a certain number ofempty spaces leftover at the end
of the job. Easy, the number ofoutlets per circuit has changed.
So in the past, it was 12. Nonstop, and that was that now
it's, you can have moredepending on the type of
(05:54):
overcurrent device you have. Soyou can get more than 12 outlets
on a on a 20 amp circuit, forexample. There's a few other
allowances in there. There'ssomething that we should all be
aware of. And we should all beasking people abouts, if you
read in Section 12, it lookslike it requires ft six flame
test six Lumix in the in coldair returns. So last I checked
(06:17):
Lumex was ft four I think sojust something that needs to be
asked there in the in thememorandum of revision in the
code discussions that go intothese changes. They did say that
there was no change in intent,but in the wording of the rule,
it certainly looks to have havechanged. So you guys will need
to be having some discussionsabout the type of Lumex that you
(06:41):
run through cold air returns inhouses. So table 19, they've
completely changed that as well.
They deleted it, rewrote it, theold table 19 had 39 or 37 notes
at the bottom. There are nownone. So it's much better and
much simpler to use. Forresidential, there's one really
(07:01):
big one, when you're runningLumix down the side of a stud,
for example, to a three gangswitch or something like that,
you now have to keep that Lumexback 32 millimeters from the
front edge from the drywall edgeof a stud. So if you know a two
by four is about 84 millimeterswide, take 32 from each side,
(07:21):
you're left with about one inchin the middle of it, you can
staple 24 millimeters or so inthe middle of that you can
staple so a four gang switch athree gang switch anything where
you got a lot of wires goingdown the same stud space, I do
believe there are bracketsavailable, but you'll have to
buy those brackets now. So foryou residential folks out there,
(07:45):
that's going to be a big one forus for sure. With that they've
put in a relaxation for Lumexand conduits if you're out there
doing a lot of hot tubs orsomething like that, and you
want to run the number six and aconduit where it leaves the
house in the 21 codebook it'svery clearly worded that you can
whereas in the 18 codebook itsort of pretty well says that
(08:09):
you can't.
Conduit sizing has not changedin terms of what size conduit
you'll get for the most part butthere's no longer a quick lookup
for conduit sizing we used to beable to use table six just
straight up, plunk your fingerdown you can get eight wires and
a three quarter inch and justoff you go there is now a three
(08:29):
table requirements and thecalculation required every time
you size conduit. So that willbe a bit of a frustration. Of
course when I say three tables,one of them is table eight it's
always 40% Pretty much but youknow that's not true. If you
have two wires in a conduitthough it's it's different.
Right? So a little bit moreinvolved for for conduit size.
(08:52):
barns, livestock buildings, theclassification has been very
stringently identified inSection 22. So if you're doing a
lot of farm work or rural work,just be very aware of what's
happened with that. There wasapparently some fires and and a
lot of lost livestock. And sothey've really stringently
worded how they've done thatnow. Secondary suites, there has
(09:15):
been some panelboard and branchcircuit relaxations for
secondary suites. So, again,pretty similar to what we've
been doing in the City ofCalgary, but now it's in our
codebook. For you largerresidential and commercial
folks, every 15 or 20 ampreceptacle outside requires GFCI
so all your car stalls, all thatstuff that didn't need them in
(09:37):
the past. You're going to needGFCI protection on that stuff.
So that's a big one for a lot ofcompanies out there. The
lighting requirements in Section30 For dwelling units you need a
light in the bedroom mutilate inthe living room, all that stuff.
It's all gone deleted. Thatdoesn't mean the requirements
are gone. They were duplicatedrequirements from the building
(10:01):
code. So just a heads up inregards to that, you still need
all those lights in the sameplaces, you just can't find
where in the codebook, it tellsyou to put them. And then sort
of an interesting one. I don'tknow how many people this will
affect, but I want to kind ofget the word out and have a
discussion with as many peopleas I can about it. They've taken
(10:24):
all the battery requirements,storage batteries from section
26 and move them to Section 64.
Section 64 Being renewableenergy systems are you an
uninterruptible power supply orUPS is not a renewable energy
system. So there's norequirements go to section 64
For that, yet, those still use alot of batteries. And so as of
right now, there's reallynowhere in the codebook for how
(10:47):
to install batteries forsomething that's not a renewable
energy system. So just somethingthat I want to get the word out
there and get people thinkingabout and start asking some
questions so that we can getsome answers on that and, and
things like that. So those are,those are the ones that I sort
of picked out that that willaffect the most people.
(11:10):
Obviously, there are hundredsand hundreds of changes from the
18th to the 21 book. Andobviously, there's more
technical wording that needs tobe said about all those things
that I mentioned, I just wantedto sort of throw them out.
Zack Hartle (11:29):
Absolutely, it's, uh, it's interesting. I mean, I
remember working out in thefield, and new code books always
came out. And you just you onlyheard about things as they
mattered. So I think that yourpoint about you know, let's get
the discussion going and earliertalked about, you know, getting
more involved and potentiallytaking some courses right to get
to keep yourself educated,right, especially as we're, you
(11:49):
know, definitely in a little bitof a different economic time to
have that little bit educationand knowledge definitely cannot
hurt. So,
David Myers (11:57):
yep. And it's, it all looks good on a resume. And
it all looks, you know, it'ssomething that people in
interviews want to hear. I thinkeverybody wants interested,
dedicated employees that are,you know, going outside of the
norm to keep themselves currentin the industry. And with things
that are happening, those arethe people that you want on
(12:19):
site, those are the people thatyou want around you.
Jason Cox (12:21):
So Dave, when you start a what's new in the code
course, or code updating course,what's the process that's
required to kind of get yourselfready to, to understand and
explain that information to yourto your students?
David Myers (12:36):
Sure, you, you start by taking five years right
off the top of your life, andyou go from there. Basically,
the first step when a newcodebook comes out, is to learn
and understand the changes. Andthe reason that the changes
exist. There's no sense tryingto implement changes in courses
or changes in exams until youknow, a what the change is be
(13:00):
how it works, and see why thechange was made. So that's the
very first step is just, youknow, hit the books, run some
calculations, talk to some otherpeople, you know, go on CSAs
website and pull the meetingminutes and sort of see the
discussion behind all thisstuff. And figure out where this
change came from. The next stepis to identify problem areas. So
(13:23):
in general, section 12, for 21has had a lot of changes. So any
question that relates back toSection 12, or that uses section
12, needs to be identified. Sowhen I say questions, I mean
exam or quiz bank questions andthings like that. And then after
that, it's identifying theindividual questions. And that
(13:45):
is probably the longest part ofthe whole process, believe it or
not, because some question thatdoesn't look like it has
anything to do with a changedepends entirely upon it. So you
pretty much have to work everynew question through the new
codebook. You know, then it'sactually editing the question
and verifying that the editswere successful and what they're
(14:06):
supposed to be. And then, youknow, you start the same
process, again, with anysupplemental activities,
worksheets, workbooks, anymodules that might be being
used, that can be edited by byus, the institution. And then of
course, it's making all theedits and implementing them and
running through them with thestudents. And invariably, we'll
(14:29):
run through them with studentsthat are much more intelligent
than we are and I maintain thathappens, every single class that
I have, and they will findthings that that we have missed
and we go through anotherprocess to catch those and to
make sure that there's nothingelse that's left outstanding.
You know, fortunately inAlberta, we have a year from
(14:50):
when the codebook is publisheduntil we put it in force. And
from a college perspective, atleast from a school perspective.
We have another eight Monthsafter that before we start with
the new code book. So we do havetime in between the code books,
but with a three year codecycle, it's pretty much a year
and a half of making theseedits, and then another six
(15:14):
months of going through themwith the students, and then you
get a year of not having toworry about it until the new
code book comes out. So it's afairly constant thing for those
of us that are doing code.
Jason Cox (15:27):
That three year cycle, it's it's a real kick in
the pants there, isn't it? Yeah,
David Myers (15:31):
well, and nowadays, you know, the, the amount of
changes in code is always verysignificant. I was involved in
code much less in the in theearly 2000s, because I was in
the field and things, but Idon't remember the changes in
code, being as in depth as theyare from book to book as they
are now. You know, and I couldcertainly be wrong about that.
(15:54):
But I feel like they're, they'recoming out with code books
faster, and they're changingthem more. And so it just ends
up being a lot of work from ourperspective. And it ends up
being a lot of work for peoplein the field, too, because
they're the ones that areinstalling these things in
different situations and findingthe problems that come up with
them. Hey, I did this, this iswhat the rule says, I don't
(16:16):
think they knew about thissituation when they wrote it.
And the rule doesn't work. Thelast three years, we've been
dealing with a specific problemwith farm services, and armored
conduits, because there is noway in code to deal with that.
And so that's been a lot ofconversation, have a lot of
inspector conferences and thingslike that. Obviously, it wasn't
(16:39):
their intent to miss it. Butthey're writing a codebook at a
desk with lots of experiencevery capable, qualified people
to do so. But I maintain thatthere is not one electrician on
the planet that has seen it all.
It's too big of a trade. Andit's you know, so with a three
year code cycle, and with allthese changes, it just leads to
(17:03):
a lot of these things that comeup that seemed to last for quite
some time after the book isimplemented. Nice. So
Zack Hartle (17:15):
my question with the What's New in the code
course, I know this course isfor me, Master electricians need
to take out what's new in thecode course in order to keep
their master certificate inAlberta active? What is there
like a certification processthat you go through when you
actually build that course thatthe CSA says yep, this is makes
this course a valid, relevant,licensed course? I guess? That's
(17:39):
correct.
David Myers (17:39):
Yep. So the safety codes Council of Alberta
requires that any safety codescount any SEC master
electricians take an updatingcourse to stay current with
code. They know if you you cango to their website to find the
courses that they have approved.
So once the course isconstructed, and built, it's
(18:00):
issued to the safety codesCouncil. They review it for
content and quality. And theysend back any changes that they
would like made, and you sendthe changes back to them. And
then of course, assumingeverything goes well, they will
certify your course. And so ifyou are, if you're interested in
code, you can take any what'snew in the code course. But if
(18:23):
you are a master in Alberta whoneeds to renew, you have to take
one of the ones that areapproved by the safety codes
Council.
Zack Hartle (18:32):
Yeah, great in that process. Like I mean, we're,
we're coming on July here. Iassume you've been working on
that that's a couple monthprocess to you know, take the
codebook go through the changes,look at them Memorandum of
revisions, build a course submitit. Right. So that's quite the
process. So pretty impressive.
David Myers (18:51):
It is yeah, it took normally there's a few of us
that work on it. But this time,you know, with the pandemic, and
with everyone working from home,it ended up you know, I did
pretty well, everything I had aI had some good health, some
good insights, and some peoplethat I could go to with a lot of
questions, but the actualbuilding of the course. You
(19:13):
know, I built this one thisyear, and it did, it took just
about three months, by the timeit was approved and ready to go
Zack Hartle (19:20):
plus five years off the top of your life. So
David Myers (19:23):
there's that, you know, but I don't have to pay
for that till later. So
Jason Cox (19:30):
you know, these three years could be tough on you
every three years. The goodthing about the three years that
like you were saying, David,it's starting to almost build a
routine with our industry peoplehave to come in and realize they
have to continually train andupgrade to keep current with the
code. I tend to agree with youin the past, it seemed that you
could go a couple of code cycleswithout there being any dramatic
(19:51):
changes. So So maybe you'relooking at eight years between
training, right? So so maybethis is maybe there's a silver
lining out of The US
David Myers (20:00):
would agree with that. Definitely.
Zack Hartle (20:03):
That wraps up our episode on the 2021 Canadian
electrical code changes talkingabout what is new in the code.
Thank you so much for coming tolisten today. As always, please
reach out to us on Instagram orFacebook. Leave us a review on
Apple podcasts or Spotify. Youhave yourselves a great day. And
we'll see you next month wherewe're talking with Dan Olson
(20:25):
from Careers the nextgeneration. Thanks a lot.
Remember, keep yourself safe outthere and if you can someone
else too.
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