wrote in message
...
On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:08:25 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

Where were you running that cable that required conduit? That almost
sounds like a Chicago thing. In Florida (and Md) you can run low
voltage cable in a plenum Tbar ceiling if it is plenum rated. You just
need to support it above the ceiling tile. That is a National Electric
Code requirement. Usually it just got thrown up there tho.

The Independent Republic of San Francisco.


Let me guess, has to be installed by a union electrician too?

It was so bad in Chicago that CEs couldn't run interface cables under
the floor in the computer room. I was in the education center and I
pulled a floor tile to move a machine over a square and the management
had a cow right there. They said if anyone saw me there would be
pickets in front of the building or something. They were all in a
chase anyway.
They also require EMT for all residential wiring there, no Romex.

SF is a huge union town. But we could at least run our own cables. Worst
computer disaster I witnessed was moving a system from one room to another.
The original room had a missed wired plug for 110V 30 amp for a card read
punch. The original FE had rewired the plug on the reader to conform to the
bad plug without telling anybody or leaving a note. Moving the system to
the other room, I checked the receptacles as to normal operations and found
it correct. Left 110v on the frame of the reader. Luckily was far enough
from the wall and any grounds to keep from killing anybody. Worked fine
offline and after we turned off all the power and hooked up all the logic
cables to the CPU and reader and when we turned on the power to both units,
CPU 208 3 phase 208V. It looked like a scene from Voyage to the Bottom of
the Sea. Sparks and flaming parts of PC boards flying out the open doors of
the CPU and card reader. About $150k damage in 5 seconds. CPU never ran
again. NCR ate the cost. Another install the Electrician (union) ate the
cost. HE swapped one of the hot leads and neutral in one of the junction
boxes before it got to the CPU receptacle.