Requirement for concreted encased conduit inside the house?

[sfav8r]

This isn't one of our jobs but when a friend asked me why this was required, I had never heard of it.

It is a new 200a overhead service. He ran the 2" rigid down the RH side of the house then penetrated the exterior wall into a storage room. Once it enters the storage room, there is an LB and the conduit goes about 18" and penetrates another outside wall where the disconnect is located. The conduit is (will be) in a soffit once the job is complete. My friend said that because the 2" rigid goes into the storage room which is part of the dwelling, that the conduit must be concealed in 2" of concrete. Now I'm not exactly sure how he would do that since the conduit is 7' in the air, but that's another story. Has anyone else heard this? I was thinking about it and I can't actually think of a time we had the service come into a dwelling area like that, but I don't see what good the concrete will do. A code reference would be appreciated either for or against.

Thanks

 

[John120/240]

Imagine the meter on the exterior wall and the panel in a interior location within the home. If you ran your conduits underground between meter & panel. If those conduits are incased in 2" of concrete they are considered outside of the structure until they exit concrete under your panel.
A similar thread a while back was about service conductors totally concealed in exterior walls.

 

[sfav8r]

Imagine the meter on the exterior wall and the panel in a interior location within the home. If you ran your conduits underground between meter & panel. If those conduits are incased in 2" of concrete they are considered outside of the structure until they exit concrete under your panel.
A similar thread a while back was about service conductors totally concealed in exterior walls.

Sorry John, but I'm not getting your point. I agree that the conduit that runs under a slab is outside the structure, but if the meter was outside, that is likely where the disconnect would be anyway which would mean the conductors thereafter are protected. Or am I misising the whole point? It wouldn't be the first time ;-)

 

[GoldDigger]

The inspectors argument is that you have neither placed the disconnect before the point where the service conductors enter the building, nor is it, arguably, as soon as possible after entering the building since it leaves the building again.
The inspector feels that the only way to resolve this is to keep the wires from officially entering the building in the first place. And that is done by keeping them encased in concrete from wall to wall.
The important thing is not that they are concealed but that the encasement keeps them from setting the building on fire if a fault occurs in the wiring before the disconnect.
Can you run conduit around the corner on the outside instead?

Tapatalk...

 

[sfav8r]

The inspectors argument is that you have neither placed the disconnect before the point where the service conductors enter the building, nor is it, arguably, as soon as possible after entering the building since it leaves the building again.
The inspector feels that the only way to resolve this is to keep the wires from officially entering the building in the first place. And that is done by keeping them encased in concrete from wall to wall.
The important thing is not that they are concealed but that the encasement keeps them from setting the building on fire if a fault occurs in the wiring before the disconnect.
Can you run conduit around the corner on the outside instead?

Tapatalk...

As I mentioned, this is not our job, but the reason he went the route he did is due to a steel member and brick at the front of the building. If he was putting the disco on the wall inside, the rigid would run into the panel and still be inside the structure. The fact that he goes back outside to the panel instead of having the panel inside doesn't make it any less safe in my eyes. In either case the rigid is "in the structure" for a short distance.

 

[GoldDigger]

It may not be any less safe, but it does not meet the language of the code, since the disconnect could have been closer than it ended up.

Tapatalk...

 

[John120/240]

Sorry John, but I'm not getting your point. I agree that the conduit that runs under a slab is outside the structure, but if the meter was outside, that is likely where the disconnect would be anyway which would mean the conductors thereafter are protected. Or am I misising the whole point? It wouldn't be the first time ;-)

Here we are limited to 10 feet max of unprotected conductor between the meter and first disconnect. So the 10 foot limit doesn't start until you exit the slab.
As Goldigger said run your conduits on the outside of the structure.

 

[sfav8r]

Here we are limited to 10 feet max of unprotected conductor between the meter and first disconnect. So the 10 foot limit doesn't start until you exit the slab.
As Goldigger said run your conduits on the outside of the structure.

The total length of conduit inside the structure is 24".

 

[kwired]

You have a somewhat unusual situation, the code doesn't address any specific length of service conductor being allowed in a building - it only says "nearest the point of entrance" or something very similar, and this leaves things pretty much up to the discretion of AHJ. By encasing in concrete he has effectively made this raceway "outside the building" and left out any second guessing as to whether or not it really could be inside. How to encase it? Build appropriate sized box around it and fill with concrete.

 

[EV607797]

...Once it enters the storage room, there is an LB and the conduit goes about 18" and penetrates another outside wall where the disconnect is located.

...The conduit is (will be) in a soffit once the job is complete.

Two things jump out at me here. First, the LB will be in a soffit once complete? If so, it would have to remain accessible, not buried.

Second, are you implying that the LB would be encased in concrete? You sure wouldn't want to do that for the same reason.

 

[iwire]

The total length of conduit inside the structure is 24".

And again the code does not give a specific distance.