Can abandoned loadcenter be concealed?

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iggy2

Senior Member
Location
NEw England
good afternoon. During renovation of an apartment building, an old loadcenter was found behind a wall that was put up when the building was renovated in the early 90s. The feeder and branch circuit conductors are dead. Is there any reason why this cannot just stay, and be re-buried (aside from the anal need to remove old junk....)? Of course it will cost money to remove it, times the number of apartments....

Thanks.
 

ron

Senior Member
As long as it can't be re-energized, there is nothing in the code that requires you to remove abandoned power equipment.

There is nothing on the power Articles of the code, like found in the Comm sections of the code. 800.25, which requires removal of accessible abandoned communications cable.
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
good afternoon. During renovation of an apartment building, an old loadcenter was found behind a wall that was put up when the building was renovated in the early 90s. The feeder and branch circuit conductors are dead. Is there any reason why this cannot just stay, and be re-buried (aside from the anal need to remove old junk....)? Of course it will cost money to remove it, times the number of apartments....

Thanks.

I think you can leave the abandoned wiring in place if you remove the load center. There is no requirement to remove abandoned wiring.

There are requirements for access to load centers and there don't appear to be exceptions for units that are not energized.

Since it is not energized, it would not appear that the working space requirements would apply.
 

charlie b

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
My answer turns on this statement:
The feeder and branch circuit conductors are dead.
Just how dead? Is the feeder connected to an upstream breaker that just happens to be open at the moment? Or has the feeder been disconnected at both ends? My answers are, in order, violation if the first question gets a "yes," and no violation if the second answer gets a "yes."

As far as I am concerned, a box that looks electricalish is not addressed by the NEC, if no wires are attached to it. So you could take a brand new load center, set its back against a wall, build another wall immediately across the front, and seal that wall against future entry forever, and not ever bring the NEC into play. Of course, you would need to leave something inside the space, right next to the load center; you need to leave a cask of amontillado. :lol:

 

iggy2

Senior Member
Location
NEw England
There are requirements for access to load centers and there don't appear to be exceptions for units that are not energized.

Since it is not energized, it would not appear that the working space requirements would apply.

This is why I like it here.... It would be hard to argue that the dead loadcenter is "likely to require examination, adjustment, etc. while energized", if it cannot be energized. Since the original feeders are long gone, they cannot be energized.

Thanks.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I think you can leave the abandoned wiring in place if you remove the load center. There is no requirement to remove abandoned wiring.

There are requirements for access to load centers and there don't appear to be exceptions for units that are not energized.

Since it is not energized, it would not appear that the working space requirements would apply.
So do all those still in the packaging loadcenters on the shelf at the big box store each need individual accessibility and working space? Inspector can have fun with his red tags just going to the store:cool:

If the equipment is not able to be energized - I don't see it as being subject to NEC whether it is hanging on a wall, sitting on a shelf or laying in a trash dumpster.
 
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