First I want to acknowledge that at least half of you contractors that clicked on this thread, did so because you saw 90.4 and you're grumbling under your breathe right now like Dastardlys dog, Muttley from Wacky Racers.
I'm not bringing up 90.4 because of the "interpretations of the rules" phrase, I'm looking at the "for deciding on the approval of equipment and materials".
I inspected a house where the EL contractor put in a Siemens MLO panel for the main. It has two sideways mounted 200amp breakers in their own sections, similiar to what you might commonly find in a commercial MDP. Under that is a single section with KOs for 12 push-in breakers. This section is not feed by either of the upper 200s. It has a MLO capacity for the two 200 doublepoles plus 12 singles, 6 doublepoles, or a combination.
I failed the service main inspection for 230.71(A), max 6 disconnects.
I was forwarded an email that was from one Siemens employee to another that made the claim that the panel did not violate 230.71(A) in installations that did not have more than 6 breakers in the panel at the time of the inspection and the email also claimed that the panel is rated as service equipment. The email made the claim that inspectors that turn down that installation are not applying 230.71(A) correctly.
So my questions are:
1] Do you think there is a difference between using this size residential MLO as a main and using a more than 6 breaker section commercial MLO MDP, if both have only 6 breakers at the time of service main inspection ?
2] Do you believe that 230.71(A) can be used to prevent a push-in MLO with more than 6 possible breaker slots ?
3] Now taking it one step further. Do you think a 42 space push-in breaker type MLO should be accepted for a main if only 6 breakers are in at the time of inspection and there's no issue with wire sizes ?
4] Do you think failing a push-in MLO with more than 6 breaker slots is a correct use of 90.4 ?
David
I'm not bringing up 90.4 because of the "interpretations of the rules" phrase, I'm looking at the "for deciding on the approval of equipment and materials".
I inspected a house where the EL contractor put in a Siemens MLO panel for the main. It has two sideways mounted 200amp breakers in their own sections, similiar to what you might commonly find in a commercial MDP. Under that is a single section with KOs for 12 push-in breakers. This section is not feed by either of the upper 200s. It has a MLO capacity for the two 200 doublepoles plus 12 singles, 6 doublepoles, or a combination.
I failed the service main inspection for 230.71(A), max 6 disconnects.
I was forwarded an email that was from one Siemens employee to another that made the claim that the panel did not violate 230.71(A) in installations that did not have more than 6 breakers in the panel at the time of the inspection and the email also claimed that the panel is rated as service equipment. The email made the claim that inspectors that turn down that installation are not applying 230.71(A) correctly.
So my questions are:
1] Do you think there is a difference between using this size residential MLO as a main and using a more than 6 breaker section commercial MLO MDP, if both have only 6 breakers at the time of service main inspection ?
2] Do you believe that 230.71(A) can be used to prevent a push-in MLO with more than 6 possible breaker slots ?
3] Now taking it one step further. Do you think a 42 space push-in breaker type MLO should be accepted for a main if only 6 breakers are in at the time of inspection and there's no issue with wire sizes ?
4] Do you think failing a push-in MLO with more than 6 breaker slots is a correct use of 90.4 ?
David
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