Just walked through a newly renovated office building in Charlotte and saw the fire alarm wiring run parallel with the 480V feeder cables in the same tray.

The install crew at this site didn't maintain the required 2-inch separation, which is a major code violation and could cause interference or damage.

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse_nguyen3mo ago

Wait, they ran the fire alarm wiring right next to the 480V feeders in the same tray... that's crazy. The whole point of the separation is so a fault on the power line doesn't fry the alarm system. You'd lose both at the same time in a real emergency. How did that even pass a rough-in inspection?

zara_hill463mo ago

Seriously @jesse_nguyen, how does something that basic get missed? Was the inspector just not paying attention?

tara7451mo ago

Oh man, that's wild! I had a friend who worked on a job once where the inspector signed off on a whole control panel that was literally wired backwards. They had the line and load swapped on every single breaker (don't ask me how). The guy was probably on his phone or just rushing through it, because nobody catches something that basic unless they're not even looking. It's scary how much stuff slips through these days, honestly.