Yesterday, we began a review of electrical system safety requirements. Today, we conclude with on overview of wiring and special system rules.
To protect employees from electrical injuries and to prevent electrical fires in your workplace, electrical wiring systems must be well designed and well maintained by competent, certified personnel.
Today, in addition to wiring systems, we’ll also review requirements for special electrical systems such as emergency power systems and fire alarm systems. But let’s start with wiring.
Wiring
OSHA’s wiring, design, and protection rule (29 CFR 1910.304) covers:
- Use and identification of grounded and grounding conductors
- Outside conductors for circuits rated 600 volts, nominal, or less
- Disconnecting conductors
- Overcurrent protection for circuits rated 600 volts, nominal, or less
- Grounding requirements for systems, circuits, and equipment
Wiring Methods, Components, and Equipment
Wiring methods, components, and equipment rules cover wiring methods for:
- Electrical continuity of metal raceways and enclosures
- Temporary electrical power and lighting wiring methods
- Permitted uses of cable trays
- Open wiring on insulators
Great news! BLR’s renowned Safety.BLR.com® website now has even more timesaving features. Take our no-cost site tour! Or better yet, try it at no cost or obligation for a full 2 weeks.
29 CFR 1910.305 also covers:
- Switches (knife switches, flush-mounted snap switches)
- Switchboards and panelboards
- Enclosures for damp or wet locations
- Conductors for general wiring
- Flexible cords and cables
- Portable cables over 600 volts, nominal
- Fixture wires
- Equipment for general use (e.g., lighting fixtures, lampholders, lamps, receptacles, cord connectors, attachment plugs, appliances, motors, motor circuits, controllers, transformers, certain capacitors, and storage batteries)
The wiring methods, components, and equipment for the general use rule do not apply to the conductors that are an integral part of factory-assembled equipment.
Special Systems
OSHA’s special systems rule (29 CFR 1910.308) covers:
- General requirements for all circuits and equipment operated over 600 volts
- Emergency power systems, such as circuits, systems, and equipment intended to supply power for illumination and special loads, in the event of failure of the normal supply
- Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3 remote control, signaling, and power-limited circuits
- Fire alarm systems
- Communications systems, such as central station connected and noncentral station connected telephone circuit; radio and television receiving and transmitting equipment, including community antenna television and radio distribution systems, telegraph, district messenger, and outside wiring for fire and burglar alarm and similar central station systems
- Solar photovoltaic systems
Your one-stop safety management resource, available 24/7. Go here to take a no-cost site tour or here to try it in your own office!
One-Stop Safety
All the information provided in today’s and yesterday’s Advisor come from the Electrical Safety Regulatory Analysis section of Safety.BLR.com. With this comprehensive workplace safety website, you’ll have access to volumes of essential safety and health information, 24/7.
Whether it’s regulatory requirements, news about the latest developments in your field, or some other vital safety and health issue, you’ll find it all reported and interpreted for you by our safety experts at Safety.BLR.com.
What’s more, this one-stop safety website is a fantastic resource for safety training materials on just about any topic you can imagine.
Training responsibilities become a snap with the website’s thousands of audio presentations, PowerPoints, prewritten safety meetings, toolbox talks, trainer’s guides, and much, much more. You’ll find training tools on more than 120 safety topics along with plain-English compliance analysis and other resources.
At a time when budget considerations are paramount, what makes more sense than an all-in-one safety training and compliance solution?
And BLR has revamped Safety.BLR.com to meet your needs even better. You’ll be amazed by all the features and functionality of the site. Highlights include:
- Side-by-Side State/Federal Compliance. By placing our state and federal regulatory analysis side by side, you easily see how to fully comply with both governmental entities.
- MSDS Library Expansion. The site now provides an immense library of 3.5 million MSDS forms, with about 10,000 more added or changed every week. Need one? Just call up the chemical by name, manufacturer, product group, or CAS number, then print it out.
- Newsletter Wizard. If you’ve ever wanted to publish a safety newsletter but felt lacking in editorial skills, this new addition is for you.
- Plan Builder. Select from our library of safety plans, customize them to suit your company’s needs, and assemble them into collections you can save in our personal library.
We’re pretty excited about Safety.BLR.com and all of its enhancements, and we’re eager for you to experience it, too. That’s why we’ve created a complimentary site tour, available here. It takes just 5 minutes.
If you like what you see, you’re invited to try the site at no cost and with no obligation. We’ll even give you a complimentary special report for doing so. Go here to take a 5-minute tour of Safety.BLR.com. It may be just what you’re looking for.