Conduit straight through a wiring gutter

[aaronbailey52]

My electrical contractor has installed 8"*8"*X" wiring gutters on the wall above all his electrical panels. At some locations, he has run 2" EMT from the panel vertically straight through the wiring gutter. The conduit does not stop or make any connections inside the gutter. There are no insulated bushings or anything, just a complete pass through. Do I have grounds to disallow this? It looks ridiculous.

Thanks

 

[RUWired]

You could quote article 300.10

300.10 Electrical Continuity of Metal Raceways and Enclosures.
Metal raceways, cable armor, and other metal enclosures for conductors shall be metallically joined together into a continuous electrical conductor and shall be connected to all boxes, fittings, and cabinets so as to provide effective electrical continuity. Unless specifically permitted elsewhere in this Code, raceways and cable assemblies shall be mechanically secured to boxes, fittings, cabinets, and other enclosures.

Rick

 

[infinity]

This is a somewhat common practice when you need to isolate one system from another. Is it really a problem?

 

[augie47]

Happen to be a HomeDepot ?
Only time I ever saw that in this area.

 

[chris kennedy]

It looks ridiculous.

Ridiculous is not a violation.

 

[hillbilly1]

Happen to be a HomeDepot ?
Only time I ever saw that in this area.

I was about to post the same thing, very common in the electrical rooms of Home Depots all over the united States.

 

[infinity]

I've seen this quite a few times as well:

 

[RUWired]

The picture Rob posted is a correct example IMO and the picture Chris posted is the improper way. If the conductor shorted out to the conduit in the picture Chris posted would there be an effective ground fault path back to the source. I would say not and that is why 300.10 is there.

Rick

 

[Twoskinsoneman]

The picture Rob posted is a correct example IMO and the picture Chris posted is the improper way. If the conductor shorted out to the conduit in the picture Chris posted would there be an effective ground fault path back to the source. I would say not and that is why 300.10 is there.

Rick

very interesting view of 300.10. the raceways to pass through the box but don't join to it.

 

[John120/240]

I've seen this quite a few times as well:

Please enlighten me. What is the reason/advantage to run two conduits thru

FMC, then just have the others loose & go thru plastic bushings ?

 

[infinity]

Please enlighten me. What is the reason/advantage to run two conduits thru

FMC, then just have the others loose & go thru plastic bushings ?

I believe that the wiring in the FMC is class 2 which cannot be in the same box as the power condcutors. Personally I think that there are better ways to do this.

 

[Sdsparky569]

I have seen this done to separate normal power from emergency

 

[don_resqcapt19]

The picture Rob posted is a correct example IMO and the picture Chris posted is the improper way. If the conductor shorted out to the conduit in the picture Chris posted would there be an effective ground fault path back to the source. I would say not and that is why 300.10 is there.

Rick

The conduit itself is the ground path...there would be no need to connect to the wireway to provide a ground path.

 

[kwired]

Please enlighten me. What is the reason/advantage to run two conduits thru

FMC, then just have the others loose & go thru plastic bushings ?

Class 2 circuits with power circuits, service conductors with non service conductors, communications with power conductors, anything that needs separated and you have a hard time getting around the other object.

The conduit itself is the ground path...there would be no need to connect to the wireway to provide a ground path.

If you really are concerned about bonding you can put put a bonding clamp on the raceway and bond it to the enclosure it runs through. What if the raceway running through is non metallic?

I have even done this with wireway that has a divider installed for low voltage and power. Say it is a horizontal run with the low voltage in the top compartment. At some point you may have a low voltage cable that needs to exit from the bottom of the wire way. How do you do so without running across in front of the cover which does not look good at all or do something like what is in the photos in other posts?

The only thing you need to watch out for is cross sectional area fill in wireways.

 

[rich000]

I posted the same question a couple of weeks ago. My favorite answer, "compliant, but stupid".

 

[don_resqcapt19]

...
If you really are concerned about bonding you can put put a bonding clamp on the raceway and bond it to the enclosure it runs through. What if the raceway running through is non metallic? ...

I am not concerned about bonding the conduit that passes through the wireway to the wireway. I don't see an issue even if the conduit is non-metallic.

 

[aaronbailey52]

Very well then

Very well then

Apparently I've not been the only one left scratching his head over this move. Thanks for the photos, commentary, etc.