Crazy Electrical Code question
Help. Our contractor’s lic. electrician is telling us that since we are doing a full upgrade of our electric in our bldg that we must install an electrical outlet on the facade of our bldg. This seems nuts for so many reasons we are wondering if it’s true. Our architect says she’s never heard of…
Help. Our contractor’s lic. electrician is telling us that since we are doing a full upgrade of our electric in our bldg that we must install an electrical outlet on the facade of our bldg. This seems nuts for so many reasons we are wondering if it’s true. Our architect says she’s never heard of it. But she says it still could be true. We don’t want to do this because it will be ugly on a nice, historic brick bldg, it is a danger to have live electric outdoors in an unsupervised space, anybody could come by and tap in. Although we would gladly do it if we could also get a guaranteed parking spot and then we could buy an electric car and charge up and make Al Gore happy. But I digress. I just don’t want this outlet. Anybody know a way around it? Thanks.
This really is in the code. There are five legal options:
1/ Get an exemption because you are in a historic district.
2/ Install it somewhere hidden from view. Under the stairs maybe?
3/ Don’t do it and pay any fine, then sue the city to recover the fine and remove the DOB violation. Being in a historic district is key to this, and it would help if you first try to get an exemption based on this status.
4/ Forget about the big electrical upgrade and do the upgrade piecemeal over a number of years.
5/ Convince some city council members to change the code.
As for stealing electricity, you can put the outlet on a switch, or it’s own circuit breaker. If you can do it, option #2 is probably the cheapest route. Option #1 is probably the most desirable, but will require some sweet talking and a lot of time on your part.
I would love to have a back of the house outlet, but for my 30 inches of concrete front lawn a front outlet is beyond useless so I feel your annoyance.
The covers that lock are ugly. And at least the water meters can be low. I’m guessing that code will make it a min. height from the ground for the outlet cover as well. Double ugly.
Re: “black box for reading the meter”, these are NOT required in NYC Historic Districts, although you may have to fight Con Ed to avoid one. OTOH, a front outlet, if it could be unobstrusively placed, would be great IMO–I wish I had one. I had an outlet installed on my rear wall several years ago and it sure beats running an extension cord out the window.
I don’t know why it is required, but it is. And yes, I have administered jobs where we put one in.
and what are people going to do, run extension cords to their house? iron their clothes in your front yard? charge their ipods? seriously, what are people going to do to “steal” your electricity?
like the first person said, get a cover that locks.
You can ask your electrician to install a switch inside that will control the outdoor outlet.
BTW if you don’t like the idea of an ‘ugly’ box on the exterior wait until you see the black box for reading the meter. It will be install without your consultation exactly where you don’t want it. It was so ugly my dog ate it.
Plant some nice greenery in front of it.
Why? so people can steal your electricity? Do you know anyone who has installed one
Why? so people can steal your electricity? Do you know anyone who has installed one