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Electrical riser diagram

rnsykes | Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on January 31, 2007 12:22pm

I know there are some other designers/architects on this board, so I thoguht i’d post a question.  A friend of mine is building a home for himself.  He hired an architect, paid his fee, and got screwed in return.  He provided him with a set of prints that look like they have been designed by a preschooler.  It’s bad, exterior doors that open out, some dimensions to the centers of windows, some to the rough openings.  From these plans he received approval to build the oundation only.  He got permission to submit his own drawings, so I’m going to revise what he already paid for, but do it correctly.  It’s a pretty basic single story contemporary design.  He is using a 400 amp service if that makes any difference.  the utilities will be underground to the house.  The foundation is built and the footing is grounded as per inspector’s instruction.  All of this has already been inspected and approved.  For them to approve the rest of plans however, they want a electrical riser daigram.  I’ve been doing residential and commercial drafting for over 10 years, and have never in my life seen an electrical riser daigram let alone been asked to provide one.  I’ve done the gas, supply and waste diagrams, but I don’t know what a electrical riser shows.  I would hope it cant involve showing every single outlet, switch, fan, light, and fixture.  that would be absurd in my opinion.  Does anyone have an idea of what they might be asking for?  Or better yet, does anyone have an example of one that they could show me?

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  1. User avater
    BillHartmann | Jan 31, 2007 12:28am | #1

    "Electrical riser diagram"

    That phrase, to me, would be talking about how the underground feed comes out of the ground to the meter. And maybe showing where the panels and/or disconnects would go. And grounding electrode system.

    As for as the "wiring" all I have seen in my very, very limited experiece has just been a copy of the BP with all of the fixtures, recpetacles, and switches shown. In addition to that you can do a schedule of circuits and what is on it.

    What juristriction is this? Maybe some one is familar with their requirements.

    .
    .
    A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
    1. rnsykes | Jan 31, 2007 12:41am | #2

      I have all of the fixtures shown on the blueprint, and I did a panel schedule.  Thats pretty much standard for my drawings.  I think you are probably right about showing the service comming out of the ground.  I've never done anything with underground utilities, so maybe thats why I've never run into it.  You wouldn't happen to have any examples I could look at would you?  the guy building the house is doing all of it himself, so I can't call his electrician to ask about this or I would.  And since I don't know the first thing about underground utilites, I'm in the dark here.  The house is being built in Upper Pittsgrove Twp. in Salem County NJ if that helps anyone.

      1. User avater
        BillHartmann | Jan 31, 2007 12:56am | #3

        "I think you are probably right about showing the service comming out of the ground. I've never done anything with underground utilities, so maybe thats why I've never run into it. "I don't either. But I have seen the power companies have detailed drawings on their website.So I would try the local electric and if they don't have one try others in the state..
        .
        A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.

      2. Dave45 | Jan 31, 2007 03:41am | #7

        I can't speak for "Joizy", but here in sunny CA, installation of the utilities from the street to the demarcation point are the responsibility of the utility companies.  When I was doing phone service to subdivisions, we just drew a line from the sidewalk box to the demarc and showed which pairs were to be wired to the SNI.  From there, it was someone else's problem.

        The actual construction was essentially field run and power and phone were almost always in a joint trench.

  2. betterbuiltnyc | Jan 31, 2007 01:30am | #4

    I got a set of prints for bidding today with a riser diagram--see attached.

    1. rnsykes | Jan 31, 2007 01:36am | #5

      Great, thanks alot.  That will be no problem.  Now I know for next time as well.

  3. joeh | Jan 31, 2007 03:29am | #6

    My local power co (Rocky Mountain Power) has a booklet that spells out what they want, it has diagrams of just about every possible might be done situation.

    What they want is what the building dept wants.

    Joe H

     

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