Conductor protection

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Brandon Loyd

Senior Member
Are there any exceptions for protecting wire when feeding a surge suppresor? I found a 60 amp 3 pole breaker feeding a surge suppresor with #10 wire. Looks like a violation to me.
 

augie47

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Location
Tennessee
Occupation
State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
Are the conductors a part of the manufactured protector, or field installed ?
 

Brandon Loyd

Senior Member
The wire is field install from the breaker to termination points in the TVSS. Conductor length is less than 10'. Don't know what the manufacturer asks for as far as OCP. But to my knowledge, manufacturers cannot supersede code anyway. So would you all agree this is in violation?
 

david luchini

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Location
Connecticut
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Engineer
So would you all agree this is in violation?

I don't feel that this is a violation, but the code is certainly not clear.

The best I could offer is 240.4(A).

There is no load on the conductors, so there is no way to size the conductors per Art 210 or 215. 285.24, for instance, says that a Type 2 SPD shall be connected anywhere on the load side of the service OCPD, and 285.26 says the conductors shall be #14 copper minimum. Together these sections suggest to me that I can use #14 awg to connect a TVSS directly to the load terminals of a (any size) Main C/B (assuming the lugs are rated for the multiple conductors.)
 
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btharmy

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
Look up the tvss specs on the manufacturer website. This install may be appropriate. I'm sure I have seen them landed on main lugs of 200 and even 400a. panels with the factory pigtails of 12awg. Otherwise, in your case, whoever installed it was lazy and instead of installing the proper breaker, just used an available breaker that was already in the panel.
 
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