Electric Baseboard Heat

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IllinoisElectrician

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If you have multiple electric baseboard heaters (say 20) in a house, and you keep each circuit at 30A and you have a couple 30A breakers, are you required to have 1 common disconnect to open all of thes circuit at once?

424.19 seems to indicate that you would need all of those circuits in their own sub panel and have a disconnect on the supply side. It says that "Where heating equipment is supplied by more than one source, the disconnecting means shall be grouped and marked." Maybe that is an alternative to having a single disconnect to kill all the circuits?

However, 424.19(C)(3) says that in a single family dwelling, the service disconnect counts.

Does this mean I can just put a couple 30A breakers in the main panel and call it a day?
 
C

cpal

Senior Member
Location
MA
I think you still are required to comply with the provisions to lock the breakers in the open posistion.

The provision for locking or adding a lock to the disconnecting means shall be installed on or at the switch or circuit breaker used as the disconnecting means and shall remain in place with or without the lock installed.

This language could be problematic in so mush as it mentions swith and breaker in the singular.
 
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hillbilly1

Senior Member
Location
North Georgia mountains
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Owner/electrical contractor
I havn't looked up what article 424 covers, but I think what they are refering to is strip heat in a common enclosure, such as an air handler. It is not uncommon for heat pumps to have a 30 amp and a 60 amp feed to the same unit.
 
I

IllinoisElectrician

Member
That seems like an obvious enough solution. I guess I still don't get what it means by having to have all the fixed electric heat disconnected together or "marked and grouped." I guess panel labeling is enough. Stupid code book, just tell me what you want.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Location
Chapel Hill, NC
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Retired Electrical Contractor
IllinoisElectrician said:
That seems like an obvious enough solution. I guess I still don't get what it means by having to have all the fixed electric heat disconnected together or "marked and grouped." I guess panel labeling is enough. Stupid code book, just tell me what you want.
Click to expand...

You are reading that article too literal. All it says is that all fixed electric heat must have a disconnect. It does not say that all in the house must be disconnected together-- It says Means shall be provided... Means is plural- more than one.
 
G

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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EE
100808-2042 EST

IllinoisElectrician:

In round numbers, disregarding derating, 60 A / 20 devices is at most 3A per device. At 120 V this is a maximum of 360 W each or 720 W at 240 V. Are they that small?

It wasn't your question but seemed out of balance.

.
 
Dennis Alwon

Dennis Alwon

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Staff member
Location
Chapel Hill, NC
Occupation
Retired Electrical Contractor
gar said:
100808-2042 EST

IllinoisElectrician:

In round numbers, disregarding derating, 60 A / 20 devices is at most 3A per device. At 120 V this is a maximum of 360 W each or 720 W at 240 V. Are they that small?

It wasn't your question but seemed out of balance.

.
Click to expand...
Gar, most baseboard heaters are 240V and are 250 watts / foot. They can be 500 watt heaters. They are small but there may be 2 or 3 per room or one on every wall.
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
IllinoisElectrician said:
If you have multiple electric baseboard heaters (say 20) in a house, and you keep each circuit at 30A and you have a couple 30A breakers, are you required to have 1 common disconnect to open all of thes circuit at once?

424.19 seems to indicate that you would need all of those circuits in their own sub panel and have a disconnect on the supply side. It says that "Where heating equipment is supplied by more than one source, the disconnecting means shall be grouped and marked." Maybe that is an alternative to having a single disconnect to kill all the circuits?

However, 424.19(C)(3) says that in a single family dwelling, the service disconnect counts.

Does this mean I can just put a couple 30A breakers in the main panel and call it a day?
Click to expand...

I take this to mean where an individual unit is supplied by more than one circuit. This would apply to an air handler with heat strips installed. They typically are not more than 10Kw per strip so multiple circuits are needed.

Typical baseboard heaters are only supplied by one circuit. If the thermostat is in the same room and has an off position that breaks all ungrounded conductors, it is an acceptable disconnect.
 
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