Next: The contractor had to obtain an electrical permit from the state to legally do it. Jeeze.....

So the electrician put an ice cube relay (Cutler-Hammer) in the system to allow the receptical feeding the LED projector to switch on when the projector shut down. No problem.

Now the electrical inspector said "fuse the relay coil".....(that circuit is already fused.....) But that's ok - whatever spins the inspector's crank, I guess....

Enter electrical inspector. He did not like the wire. He wanted stranded conductor instead of solid conductor. (what a jerk)

Now he wants documentation on the fuse holder, relay and the relay socket to make sure it is "UL" approved.

Now the inspector wants us to go back to ORC to get documentation to make sure the ORC Console can handle an extra 1/10 of an amp without overloading and tripping the 60 amp breaker. Grrrrrr...

Pardon me, gentlemen, but I think this electrical inspector should buy a life at "K" Mart.

We hire a contractor to do minor work. We can't legally do any minor work such as this now, as we could get a hefty fine if we did and got caught doing it in this state.

Please don't get me wrong.....I am for electrical safety. All our electrical parts come from commercial suppliers such as Johnstone, Grainger, All-Phase Electric, and Platt Electric. We do our best to stay away from the hardware stores. Much of that hardware store stuff is sub-standard.

Four things come to mind.

1. The electrical inspector has to justify his job.
2. The state makes money on permits.
3. Electrical inspectors like to think they are God.
4. If they have a bad day, their philosophy seems that it is necessary to ruin everybody's day.

To top it off, the electrical contractor we hired is a journeyman, licensed and bonded, and has been doing electrical contracting work for years!

Everyone I talked to while I was trying to get practically non-existant documentation in ice cube relays and minor stuff like that agree that some - but not all inspectors - are a bunch of jerks.

Maybe I have a bad attitude, but if one of these jerks expects me to hire an electrical contractor to change a hard-wired Xenon Power Supply complete with a permit to do so can just KMA!

Paul.

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No amount of argument or persuasion by our people, the cinema management or anyone else within earshot, would make the fire boys budge, so four steel buckets were duly purchased and filled with sand in order for the cinema to be allowed to open. Talk about rednecks!

Biggest problem I see is the way it was written.

For instance, the NEC book states something to the effect that "rectifiers shall be in a separate room, if at all possible"......but some damn inspector that doesn't know the difference between his ass and a hole in the ground will red-tag the booth because the line was interpertated as "shall be" in a separate room, Period! End of story. Cast in stone. No compromise. None whatsoever.

After that SOB signs off the contractor's work, I just might make a formal complaint to Washington State. We "ditched" one electrical inspector in this area about 10 years ago. He was getting too many complaints, so the State of Washington transferred him to Snohomish County. I wonder if that was the inspector that Don Sneed tangled with?

Don, I'll send you his name via private email, just for the helluva it to see if it is the same person we ditched from Skagit County.

Mark is right; it's amazing how seasoned electricans get totally confused when dealing with anything low voltage or even remotely like electronics.

------------------
Greg Mueller
Amateur Astronomer, Machinist, Filmnut http://www.muellersatomics.com/

Remember that flap about a new tax in Seattle called a "View Tax"? Well, that went over like a lead balloon.

Oh, did you know that you have to buy a permit to remove and dispose a rotten stump from your property? I am not kidding. It is called a "Stump Permit."

Probably was named after the remains of the Governor's genitalia after he sat on a toilet seat equipped with a "Salami Cutter."

As far as electrical inspectors, and other inspectors as well, is they have a tendency to usurp their authority to settle a personal grudge. In addition, they often use their own interpretation of the code books, rather than to actually find out how it is supposed to be interperted.

Here's another, although it is not really related:

Once I called the sheriff to ticket a car that was so illegally parked in the street that it not only created a traffic safety hazard, but it was partially blocking my driveway. The Deputy came out, looked at it, and did nothing. I called them back, and the dispatcher indicated that the Deputy did not think it was a hazard, and tough luck about it blocking my driveway.

I told the dispatcher that I was not particularly interested in the Deputy's personal opinion, and I was more interested on how the law was written. The dispatcher became a little indignant, and I immediately demanded a meeting with the sheriff himself.

Almost immediately, the Deputy returned, and told the owner to move the car.

Of course, the Deputy watched me like a hawk for the next several weeks. Come to find out, the owner of the car was the Deputy's buddy.

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John Walsh - At the Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon,WA one of our power panels for the booth and auditorium had nothing but plug fuses and knife switches. This was neat! Sometimes it was an "electrifying" experience to turn on the lights, especially when the panel light above the panel was burned out. *ZzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzTTTTTttttttttttttt!!!!!!!!!

One learns to place one hand in the pocket very fast while firing up the theater for the first show..

IF the booth is going to be a nitrate-safe booth, then all the electrical equipment (that could ignite the film) is to be in a seperate room, etc. etc... IF the booth is NOT going to handle nitrate then you can install electrical equipment in the same way you would install it in any other (similar) commercial environment.

In some cases you need to post a placquard on the entrance(s) to the booth... "Safety Film ONLY".

Sounds like the inspector doesn't know his own code.

The whole proof is placquarded right on every projector... "Professional use only... Not for use with nitrate film..."
If the projectors aren't fit for running nitrate then there is NO WAY the booth can be nitrate-safe. Thus, there is no need to apply the more stringent standards.

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