A. Safety: All electrical equipment, wiring and appliances shall be properly installed, maintained and used in a safe manner. Unless provided otherwise in this chapter, all electrical wiring and equipment shall be in accordance with the electrical code in effect at the time of installation. All conductors shall be protected by fuses or circuit breakers that are adequately sized.
B. Electrical Equipment: Electrical equipment shall not exceed the load capacity of the service and branch circuits shall have adequately sized circuit breakers or fuses.
C. Facilities Required: The following electric facilities must be furnished at a minimum and must be operable:
1. Service: The minimum main service to any dwelling unit shall be sixty (60) amperes. Existing dwelling units with electrical services less than sixty (60) amps per dwelling unit which have no special electrical service loads, such as air conditioners, ranges, heating units and clothes dryers may continue to be operated without upgrading the service.
2. Branch Circuits: Circuits supplying air conditioners, ranges, cooktops, stoves and heating appliances shall meet the requirements of the NEC. Branch circuits shall not be overfused.
3. Receptacles: Every habitable room shall contain at least two (2) electrical receptacles or one electrical light fixture and one electrical receptacle. Grounding type receptacles shall only be used when connected to a grounding system. Existing nongrounding type receptacles may be replaced with grounding type receptacles where protected by a ground fault circuit interrupter.
D. Upgrading Facilities:
1. Service: When remodeling work is done, the service must be upgraded if required by the NEC.
2. Circuits: When new circuits, outlets, switches, wiring and service panels are being installed, the installation shall meet the requirements of the NEC.
3. Receptacles: Wiring, receptacles and switches may be replaced without upgrading so long as circuits are not overloaded.
E. Lighting:
1. Dwelling Units: Every toilet room, bathroom, laundry room, furnace room, interior stairway and hall shall contain at least one permanently mounted electric light fixture.
2. Apartments, SROs And Congregate Housing:
a. Lighting in the common areas shall be as follows: Aisles, passageways, stairwells, corridors, exitways and recesses related to and within the building complex shall be illuminated with a minimum of a forty (40) watt light bulb or equivalent for each two hundred (200) square feet of floor area; provided, that the spacing between lights shall not be greater than thirty feet (30'). Structures containing three (3) dwelling units or less shall not be required to provide exit lighting when no lighting outlet has been previously provided.
b. Every furnace room shall contain at least one electric lighting fixture.
c. Open parking lots and carports shall be provided with a minimum of one foot-candle of light on the parking surface during the hours of darkness. Lighting devices shall be protected by weather resistant covers and shall not cast glare on neighboring properties.
F. General:
1. All electrical panels, boxes, outlets and lighting fixtures shall have proper covers.
2. Flexible cords, as defined in the NEC, shall be used only according to their listing and shall not be installed as permanent wiring or strung across exitways. (Ord. 68-96 § 1, 1996: Ord. 55-95 § 4 (Exh. A), 1995)