an electrical with a panelboard (1200A and over 6ft.) requires two entrances / means of egress, one of the exceptions is that if you have a clear path of egress out of the room you would not need two paths of egress. But what defines a clear path? If you have a switchboard that is 8? long with the proper working clearances and you exit at one end of the room where there is a clear path to egress is that acceptable?
110.26(C)(2)(a)?
- Thread starter Mike01
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Paul the BIG Finn
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- Location
- Ashburn, VA
The illustration in the Handbook show switchboard with no side access space and a dirsct path from the front of the equipment to a standard door on teh opposite wall.
I'd say unobstructed means there is nothing you have to step around on the way to the door from anywhere in front of the switchboard.
I'd say unobstructed means there is nothing you have to step around on the way to the door from anywhere in front of the switchboard.
Paul the BIG Finn
Member
- Location
- Ashburn, VA
it a tough call. The idea is to be always moving towards safety if the switchboard is failing. The paragraph is sufficiently vague that it becomes what even the inspector thinks it means.
inspector
inspector
It has been a discussion in our office lately if it is acceptable to provide a single entrance / egress into the space at one end of the gear, or if the door must be on the oppisite wall of the gear the code does not specifically indicated the position of the door? we have talked to some inspectors with mixed results just wondering if anyone else has come across this?
inspector
It has been a discussion in our office lately if it is acceptable to provide a single entrance / egress into the space at one end of the gear, or if the door must be on the oppisite wall of the gear the code does not specifically indicated the position of the door? we have talked to some inspectors with mixed results just wondering if anyone else has come across this?
- Location
- Lockport, IL
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- Retired Electrical Engineer
A big part of the problem is that the code speaks of entrances to the working space, not entrances to the room. But the way I see the issue under discussion, you can only use that exception to allow one entrance if a worker standing anywhere along the gear (i.e., at any position from which there could be work going on within the gear) can walk from that position to the door without going around any columns, floor-mounted equipment, or other obstructions. It does not matter where the door is, so long as there is a direct path from the working person's location to the location of the door. One more thing: I would consider the access panel/cover to the equipment itself to be an obstruction, if it is hinged on the side closer to the exit door. That is, if the worker, with hands inside the enclosure, cannot see the exit door because the access panel/cover is in the line of sight, then the exception does not apply, and you need a second entrance to the working space.
I agree
I agree
Charlie Thanks for your input I agree about the ?hinged? door application, that it would be an ?obstacle? if that indeed were the case. Some argue that the door cannot be at one ?end? of the gear because you could be exiting thru a path that could contain a hazardous condition if something were to happen in the gear, and the door should be on the opposite wall, the graphic in the handbook indicates it in this manor however the way the code reads it does not dictate the location of the door, so a single entrance at the end of the gear provided it is a clear and unobstructed path (not permanent structures or equipment) to have to maneuver around that it is acceptable by code (in my opinion anyways).
I agree
Charlie Thanks for your input I agree about the ?hinged? door application, that it would be an ?obstacle? if that indeed were the case. Some argue that the door cannot be at one ?end? of the gear because you could be exiting thru a path that could contain a hazardous condition if something were to happen in the gear, and the door should be on the opposite wall, the graphic in the handbook indicates it in this manor however the way the code reads it does not dictate the location of the door, so a single entrance at the end of the gear provided it is a clear and unobstructed path (not permanent structures or equipment) to have to maneuver around that it is acceptable by code (in my opinion anyways).
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