# NCEES Practice exam problem 135 question



## Sparky Bill PE (Jan 25, 2020)

God what a long miserable F'in day. 

Anyways, I can't seem to find this 2'-7". I am using the 2018 70E book, the problem says 2015, the NCEES specifications says to use 2018. Can someone plz let me know if this value changed or if I"m looking at something wrong.  I used the graph on AC, to go from 34.5 kV over to "exposed circuit parts" since it says it has live exposed rigid bus.


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## DLD PE (Jan 25, 2020)

Yes the approach boundary in this case changed from 2'-7" in 2015 to 2'-9" in 2018.

I brought this up last year when someone asked me if they thought it was ok to just bring the 2015 NFPA 70E to the exam.  I said "at your own risk" and cited this exact problem.


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## Sparky Bill PE (Jan 25, 2020)

MEtoEE said:


> Yes the approach boundary in this case changed from 2'-7" in 2015 to 2'-9" in 2018.
> 
> I brought this up last year when someone asked me if they thought it was ok to just bring the 2015 NFPA 70E to the exam.  I said "at your own risk" and cited this exact problem.


Why is it 2'-9" in column 4 instead of column 3? 3 is for exposed parts and it says there is exposed energized bus.


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## DLD PE (Jan 25, 2020)

SparkyBill said:


> Why is it 2'-9" in column 4 instead of column 3? 3 is for exposed parts and it says there is exposed energized bus.


Because the problem states that the maintenance is being done by a "qualified person", therefore they are subject to the restricted approach boundary..


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## Sparky Bill PE (Jan 25, 2020)

MEtoEE said:


> Because the problem states that the maintenance is being done by a "qualified person", therefore they are subject to the restricted approach boundary..


Thanks boss! Excited to pull it back up to see where it told me to use that column if it's a qualified person! That 100% is exactly what I was missing!


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## DLD PE (Jan 25, 2020)

No problem.  Zach mentioned this problem in his class.  A lot of people were stumped by it so don't beat yourse up over it!


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## Sparky Bill PE (Jan 25, 2020)

Here's the "gotcha" part I was looking for: 

These are the type of problems I honestly don't see how anyone could get this right on first try. It's like you have to get screwed once to learn from the ignorance. I told my wife that was the most disheartening thing about taking the practice exam. The other exams I have took I felt I got it right, or wrong. Not crap like this.


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