adding sub panel

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i have a customer who lives in a co-op and his insurance company wont give him the insurance unless its a 100 amp system they say its part of the code in nec
 
they did not tell him where in the code they say that its there and thats what they want so im trying to figure out if its true in fact so the customer has some ground to stand on when he talks to them
 
I agree with Bob, in that there is no minimum rating for the main panel, and no "relative rating restriction" on serving a sub-panel from a main panel.

I think the inspector is misinterpreting 230.79(C). That article does have a minimum rating of 100 amps. But that rating aplies to the service disconnecting means, not to the panel. If you are talking about the main panel for the dwelling unit, and if there is a main breaker in that panel, and if that main breaker happens to be serving as the service disconnecting means, then the panel would have to have a minimum rating of 100 amps. But that has nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of a sub-panel.
 
And what is the panel (or what are the panels) that is/are under discussion? Are we talking about the main panel to one of the units, and (if so) does that panel have a main breaker, and (if so) is that main breaker the "service disconnecting means" for the unit?

 
right no he has a 60 amp main fuse panel in the basement with a single plole 30 amp fuse feeding a sub panel with 4 15 amp fuses in his apartment
 
I agree with Jim. Though fuses are extremely reliable, we are talking about edison plug fuses here, rated for only 125 volt circuits, and if without type 'S' adapters, easily may have had higher ampacity fuses in the past. And no common trip, of course.

The wiring they protect would be a bigger concern to me, though . . .
 
A 60 amp service to a dwelling unit does not meet with the current NEC requirements. But it might have been acceptable when it was built. So the NEC would not require it to be replaced. That said, an insurance company can make its own decisions. All I will say is that if they claim that this installation is a code violation, they are wrong, and if they claim it doesn't meet today's code, they are right.

I will add that the fact that a subpanel exists has nothing to do with the situation. The rule under discussion is all about the service disconnecting means.
 
Let me rephrase. 230.79(C) would not allow a 60 amp fuse to be the service disconnecting means for a single family dwelling unit. Just such a fuse appears to be taking on that role for this particular unit.
 
Volta said:
Except that a fuse isn't a disconnecting means.
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And that brings us back to my earlier question: what exactly is the service disconnecting means for this unit, and what is its rating? Granted that a fuse is not supposed to be used for this purpose, but I have not seen any statements to the effect that that is not exactly what is going on here.

On the other hand, if at the meter, or next to the 60 amp fuse box, there is a service-rated disconnect, and if it has an assigned rating of 100 amps or higher, then the insurance company has no basis whatsoever to claim that the NEC does not allow this installation.

So, Patsy, what say you?
 
Volta said:
Anyway, this is not a single family dwelling, it is an apartment style co-op building.
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I don't know what "co-op" means. If there is a single service to the building, and individual feeders to each unit, that would make a 60 amp service disconnect an acceptable installation, per 230.79(D). But again, we don't know anything about the service disconnect.
 
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