[PLUG-TALK] VUE, NFPA 70 standard, load center, mixed wiring

[Tomas Kuchta]

Looking at your detailed posts Keith - I am starting to understand why my
manager and/or partner get real mad when it comes to me doing things
"properly".

Maybe, I will show them a few of these posts to appreciate my awesome level
of practicality. I'll make sure that they have decent life coverage, before
exposing them to these PLUG posts.

LOL

On Thu, Jan 8, 2026, 21:36 Keith Lofstrom <keithl at keithl.com> wrote:

> Still learning about safe connection of an Emporia VUE inside
> my "load center" aka "ciruit breaker box".
>
> The relevant electrical safety standard is NFPA 70, a
> thousand pages of double column requirements and "shall be's".
>
> The standard is available FREE ONLINE (signup required) here:
>
> https://link.nfpa.org/free-access/publications/70/2026
>
> The relevant sections appear to be:
>
> Article 110 "General Requirements for Electrical Installations"
> pages 66 through 78,
>
> Article 300 "General Requirements for Wiring Methods and Materials"
> pages 202 through 208, and
>
> Article 310 "Conductors for General Wiring"
> pages 220 through 233.
>
> Standard-ese is an acquired language skill.  I helped write two
> IEEE standards, so the NFPA "dialect" is like "Danish" to my
> "Swedish".  Your kilometer-age may vary.
>
> The Vue is currently connected but loose at the bottom of my
> load center.  The mounting holes on the back are 35mm apart,
> threaded for 2.5mm diameter 0.5mm thread screws; I have some
> of these screws in my vast collection of 99% useless crap.
>
> I will make a metal L bracket, and attach the VUE to the inside
> bottom of the load center box.  Right now, the wire pairs to the
> VUE current sensors dangle all over the place, but I've ordered
> some plenum grade "Velcro" tape to bundle them neatly.
>
> I will add small "Brother P-Touch" plastic labels to each sensor
> pair to keep track, and laserprint another label for the outside
> of the load center door.  And for my sysadmin notebook.  And for
> our house wiki.  And for future helpers.
>
> One inch of ethernet cable inside the load center box, connecting
> to a SLRKIT 4 port POE hub mounted beneath the box.  As I read
> the NFPA 70, my tiny bit of ethernet cable inside the box will
> not violate the standard or create a fire or safety risk.  The
> plastic labels might be flammable.
>
>
> The outbound CAT6 ethernet cable from the SLRKIT will connect
> 50 feet across my basement to a tp-link TL-POE150S PoE injector,
> and then to my house ethernet hub, and then through my firewall
> to Emporia using their server ... for now.
>
> ----
>
> How that connection evolves is step 2, and another email thread.
>
> Rather than reflashing the VUE, I prefer to "wireshark" the
> traffic to Emporia through my firewall, study it, and create
> my own "intercept the traffic and pretend to be Emporia" server
> in software.  That way, I can use a second off-the-shelf VUE
> after I make a dumb mistake and fry this one.  Other VUE geeks
> can do likewise.
>
> If Emporia uses private key encryption, this might not work.
>
> ----
>
> Anyway - if all this seems excessive detail, it is because
> I am 72 years old and may be demented in another decade.
> I (or my wife) may hire a younger PLUG member to keep all
> this going after I cannot.  If many of us converge on the
> same general approach, that younger PLUG member will have
> many similar customers someday.
>
> Or not; Gen Z geeks irritate differently than boomer geeks
> (especially those of us with age-related hearing challenges).
>
> Keith L.
>
> --
> Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com
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