Circuit Fed From Different Suite

[pjmiller]

Hello,

We own a building that contains our medical practice as well as three other tenant suites we rent out. We recently lost one of our tenants and decided to take over that suite and use it for our needs, however it is still considered a separate building suite per the address.

We are looking to upgrade the heating in this suite, however the existing electrical panel is only 100a and does not have the capacity to feed more heat strips. We had a few companies quote upgrading this panel to 200 amp, but one company suggested we could save money by feeding the heat strips from the buildings house panel located in a different part of the building and outside of this suite. This would be less cost because we would only need to run wire sized for these heat strips and avoid panel upgrade altogether.

The cheaper option is obviously preferred, however I feel this is possibly a code issue if we go this route. Even if everything is labeled correctly stating where the power originates from, can electrical circuits feeding equipment located in a suite originate from outside of that suite?



Thank you,
Paul

 

[hmspe]

I would expect the AHJ to cite 240.24(B) and not allow the foreign circuits if the suites are separate.

 

[hillbilly1]

A lot of commercial buildings have foreign circuits ran through the suites. The most common is security light circuits from a house panel.

 

[Fred B]

without looking for additional code references the AHJ may still have a problem with that if
1. separately metered
2. non owner occupied
3. listed as separate occupancies even if both leased by the one entity.
4 Fire separation between units become another issues with powering from multiple separate panels
5. Branch circuit under the control of potentially different tenant.

 

[pjmiller]

Thank you all for your input. I will talk with the AHJ and see what they have to say. This suite and the main building do share a meter out of the 3 total we have, so maybe we will be OK, but probably best to still check. Thanks again.


Paul