Disconnect Handle Clearance

[strippers&dykes]

Im mounting (2) disconnects next to each other on a wall. Is there a minimum distance the handle needs to be from the other disconnect? So if i mount the (2) disconnects 6" apart, it gives me 4" from the handle to the other disconnect. Is this acceptable and is there an article in the code that i can refer to?

 

[ActionDave]

I'd say it's acceptable. You just have to be able to open both the doors a full ninety degrees.

 

[strippers&dykes]

Both doors open to 120 degrees, so I'm good there.

I've trying to find where it says that the handle needs 6" clearance from anything next to it, which i haven't been able to find. I keep being told by my field manager that it needs to be 6" and it seems to cause a lot of issues. Do you perhaps know of any article referring to what i am being told?

 

[ActionDave]

Never heard of that.

 

[Cavie]

There is nothing in the NEC for side to side clearance for a disconnect handle. There is the 30" wide working clearance. This would include both disconnects.

 

[Jraef]

Sometimes I wonder where ideas like this come from. My theory on a plausible "origin story" is one of the following:

1. A misinterpretation of 110.26.A.3, where is calls for other equipment in a workspace not sticking out MORE than 6" from another device in the same workspace. All they remember was something about 6" clearance.
3. A different misinterpretation of a similar section calling for a disconnect handle not being more than 6' 6" off the floor, and later "dropped" the 6' part, as well as the "off the floor" part, retaining only the 6" clearance as what they remember.
5. They read it in the installation manual for something like a VFD or other piece of equipment that needed ventilation where they required 6" of unobstructed air space around the enclosure, and if the unit had a disconnect, they ASSumed it had to do with clearance for the disconnect handle, similar to the 36" working space in front.