storage trailer wiring

[novemberaudi]

I am installing lights and receptacles in portable storage trailers ( conex boxes). They are used for material storage for a site contractor. I installed gfci receptacles but don't see this addressed in the code. The closest is 210.8(B)(8) garages ,service bays and similar areas. it is not a garage but portable hand tools may be used. Does the code address this.

 

[ActionDave]

I think the code reference you gave addresses it: Garages (meaning out buildings) + Similar Areas + Portable Hand Tools = GFCI required.

 

[petersonra]

I think the code reference you gave addresses it: Garages (meaning out buildings) + Similar Areas + Portable Hand Tools = GFCI required.

A garage is a garage.

An out building is not necessarily a garage.

is a conex container a garage or a conex container?

I see nothing inherently wrong with installing GFCIs here but I am not sure the reasoning why one would do so is sound.

Portable hand tools MIGHT be used anywhere. In fact, they almost certainly at some point will be used just about everywhere.

 

[cadpoint]

Construction work needs a GFCI, as does outdoor work!

Protect the workers from themselves (Good Luck with that one aspect)

 

[petersonra]

Construction work needs a GFCI, as does outdoor work!

Protect the workers from themselves (Good Luck with that one aspect)

Garages, service bays, and similar areas where electrical
diagnostic equipment, electrical hand tools, or portable
lighting equipment are to be used

I do not see how a storage area can be considered to be covered by this clause.

I don't have an issue with installing GFCI outlets there as an extra safety measure, but I do not see how it is required by the code.

 

[K8MHZ]

We have used connex boxes as pipe threading and cutting rooms along with material storage. The EC that owned them ran conduit on the surface and used metal boxes. From inside, it was just like being in a small, permanent building. The storage buildings usually had electric heaters in them, and were well lit. The heaters were plug and cord connected so they could be moved from one box to another. Usually the heaters 'belonged' to a single foreman or department. Sometimes they would be used as temporary work places, where a one person, repetive job (like drilling a bunch of holes with a hand drill) could be done out of the weather. Shop vacs were also used in them.

The metal floors were almost always wet and we were more often than not in contact with metal that could possibly become energized.

As noted, construction sites need GFCI protection. Even if they didn't, those boxes are practically poster children for GFCI applications.

NEC or not, I say use them.

If you decide not to use them because the NEC doesn't require them, the result would be the worst and least safe installation allowed by law.

 

[mgookin]

I am installing lights and receptacles in portable storage trailers ( conex boxes). They are used for material storage for a site contractor. I installed gfci receptacles but don't see this addressed in the code. The closest is 210.8(B)(8) garages ,service bays and similar areas. it is not a garage but portable hand tools may be used. Does the code address this.

If you have receptacles, you have power tools and materials. That means you're manufacturing. You're going to have to go to the zoning board, the planning commission and the city council to ask for a special use allowance. Then you have to do a hydraulic study to see if you infringe the 5 billion year floodplain taking into consideration global warming. Now you need to see if that conex box is older than 5 years in which case you need to go to the historical conex box preservation commission (HCBPC) and give them a detailed plan on how you're going to install your receptacles without causing irreversable deterioration to the box integrity. (double sided tape works very well) After your groundhog study, your burrowing owl study, bald eagle study and exotic grasses study are all done you should be in good shape!

 

[petersonra]

I am installing lights and receptacles in portable storage trailers ( conex boxes). They are used for material storage for a site contractor. I installed gfci receptacles but don't see this addressed in the code. The closest is 210.8(B)(8) garages ,service bays and similar areas. it is not a garage but portable hand tools may be used. Does the code address this.

Note what the OP originally asked.

 

[mgookin]

Note what the OP originally asked.

If you're referring to my post, it was intended as a joke.

When I started in a building department decades ago there was a cartoon clipped from the newspaper and it was hanging in the lunch room. It showed a permit guy dressed like a cop. A young woman comes in saying she just purchased 123 Main Street and would like to make it a deli. He tells her of about 30 outrageous requirements she needs to get through and then she asks "What do I do when all of that's done?"
He replies "We don't know; it's never happened before."

 

[petersonra]

If you're referring to my post, it was intended as a joke.

When I started in a building department decades ago there was a cartoon clipped from the newspaper and it was hanging in the lunch room. It showed a permit guy dressed like a cop. A young woman comes in saying she just purchased 123 Main Street and would like to make it a deli. He tells her of about 30 outrageous requirements she needs to get through and then she asks "What do I do when all of that's done?"
He replies "We don't know; it's never happened before."

I figured that. Although it is not far off from the truth these days.

No, I was referring to the guys who opined about why it would be a good idea to have GFCIs in such a structure but never actually got around to answering the question the OP actually asked.

 

[K8MHZ]

I figured that. Although it is not far off from the truth these days.

No, I was referring to the guys who opined about why it would be a good idea to have GFCIs in such a structure but never actually got around to answering the question the OP actually asked.

NEC may not require it, but OSHA may.

 

[petersonra]

NEC may not require it, but OSHA may.

not the question that was asked.

and why would OSHA require it?

it is not temporary power.

 

[ActionDave]

NEC does require it.

210.8(B) Other Than Dwelling Units. All 125-volt, single-
phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in the loca-
tions specified in 210.8(B)(1) through (8) shall have
ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel.

(8) Garages, service bays, and similar areas where electri-
cal diagnostic equipment, electrical hand tools, or por-
table lighting equipment are to be used

I would say that in the context of "Other Than Dwelling Units" what the OP describes fits into "similar areas" as good as a pair of yoga pants fits on nice figure. Not a whole lot of contorted stretching or stuffing involved.

 

[K8MHZ]

not the question that was asked.

and why would OSHA require it?

it is not temporary power.

Well, I guess since the OP mentioned 'portable' containers, to me that meant temporary.

 

[K8MHZ]

NEC does require it.

210.8(B) Other Than Dwelling Units. All 125-volt, single-
phase, 15- and 20-ampere receptacles installed in the loca-
tions specified in 210.8(B)(1) through (8) shall have
ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel.

(8) Garages, service bays, and similar areas where electri-
cal diagnostic equipment, electrical hand tools, or por-
table lighting equipment are to be used

I would say that in the context of "Other Than Dwelling Units" what the OP describes fits into "similar areas" as good as a pair of yoga pants fits on nice figure. Not a whole lot of contorted stretching or stuffing involved.

I agree with the 'similar area'. The question remains, will there be 'electrical diagnostic equipment, electrical tools or portable lighting equipment' used there?

 

[petersonra]

I agree with the 'similar area'. The question remains, will there be 'electrical diagnostic equipment, electrical tools or portable lighting equipment' used there?

I am installing lights and receptacles in portable storage trailers ( conex boxes). They are used for material storage for a site contractor. I installed gfci receptacles but don't see this addressed in the code. The closest is 210.8(B)(8) garages ,service bays and similar areas. it is not a garage but portable hand tools may be used. Does the code address this.

(8) Garages, service bays, and similar areas where electri-
cal diagnostic equipment, electrical hand tools, or por-
table lighting equipment are to be used

Read what this provision actually says. There are two requirements for this provision to be triggered. One is that it be a garage, service bay or similar area and the other that diagnostic equipment, tools, etc. are to be used.

Both are required.

This is not a garage or service bay. That would require that someone put a motor vehicle in there and no one has said that is the case. It is a storage facility where someone might use hand tools. It is not in any way "similar" to a service bay or a garage, since there is no motor vehicle involved.

Note the wording says the tools, etc "are to be used", meaning that is what the space is used for, not that someone might use an electric drill there now and then.

There is no amount of stretch that makes this situation fit this provision, since it does not met either of the two conditions that must be simultaneously present to trigger the provision.

It just is not required by code.

It might be a good idea. That does not make it required by code.

 

[tom baker]

Here is your answer:
590.6 Ground-Fault Protection for Personnel. Groundfault
protection for personnel for all temporary wiring installations
shall be provided to comply with 590.6(A) and
(B). This section shall apply only to temporary wiring installations
used to supply temporary power to equipment
used by personnel during construction, remodeling, maintenance,
repair, or demolition of buildings, structures,
equipment, or similar activities. This section shall apply to
power derived from an electric utility company or from an
on-site-generated power source.
(A) Receptacle Outlets. Temporary receptacle installations
used to supply temporary power to equipment used by
personnel during construction, remodeling, maintenance,
repair, or demolition of buildings, structures, equipment, or
similar activities shall comply with the requirements of
590.6(A)(1) through (A)(3), as applicable.
(1) Receptacle Outlets Not Part of Permanent Wiring.
All 125-volt, single-phase, 15-, 20-, and 30-ampere receptacle
outlets that are not a part of the permanent wiring of
the building or structure and that are in use by personnel
shall have ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for
personnel. Listed cord sets or devices incorporating listed
ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for personnel
identified for portable use shall be permitted.
(2) Receptacle Outlets Existing or Installed as PermanentWiring.
Ground-fault circuit-interrupter protection for
personnel shall be provided for all 125-volt, single-phase,
15-, 20-, and 30-ampere receptacle outlets installed or existing
as part of the permanent wiring of the building or
structure and used for temporary electric power. Listed cord
sets or devices incorporating listed ground-fault circuitinterrupter
protection for personnel identified for portable
use shall be permitted.


So if you are storing parts no GFCI, but once construction, remodeling, maintenance,
repair, or demolition work takes place then GFCI is required.

 

[petersonra]

(B). This section shall apply only to temporary wiring installations
used to supply temporary power to equipment
used by personnel during construction, remodeling, maintenance,
repair, or demolition of buildings, structures,
equipment, or similar activities.
So if you are storing parts no GFCI, but once construction, remodeling, maintenance,
repair, or demolition work takes place then GFCI is required.

appears to apply only while these activities are going on to the structure in question.

 

[novemberaudi]

Thanks for the replies. Obviously gfcis should be used but the wording seems open for interpretation. Even the code on temp wiring allows regular outlets on permanently installed wiring to have gfci cord sets. But the wiring is permanent and gfcis are installed.

 

[K8MHZ]

Thanks for the replies. Obviously gfcis should be used but the wording seems open for interpretation. Even the code on temp wiring allows regular outlets on permanently installed wiring to have gfci cord sets. But the wiring is permanent and gfcis are installed.

Remember that following the NEC to the letter results in the worst installation allowed by law.

Good for you using GFCI's to protect personnel even though not required by the NEC.

:thumbsup: