Clearances above festoon lighting

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Wilg

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Ran into a new one for our department. We have a business that installed LED festoon lights on metal poles around an outdoor dining area.

The poles and lights are directly under the service drop to another building.

Can't place the right code section for allowable distance of outdoor branch circuits under a utility drop....does the NEC even address it?

225.19 (B) addresses the poles....but only IF it was a feeder, this is a service drop???

Any advice for a confused inspector??

Thanks
 
Any educated guesses?:blink:

I'm falling back to alerting the utility provider....and then invoking "cause I said so...":happyyes:
 
Is the service drop feeding a service to a building owned by someone other than the business with the newly-installed lights? If that would be the case (in my locale, anyway) the utility will gladly relocate the service drop so as to not run over a different customer's property.

A friend of mine wanted to build a garage in his back yard, but the service drop to his neighbors house would have laid right on the roof. He called Ameren and they relocated that service drop the very next day. The only reason I can think if that they are so willing to do this is that maybe they got burned with a liability issue at some point.
 
The service drop in question is feeding a building owned by another party.

Hopefully the utility will agree with us that this could be a hazard and adjust the drop.

At one point it is within 8-9" of the festoon posts....just doesn't look good to me.
 
Wilg said:
The service drop in question is feeding a building owned by another party.

Hopefully the utility will agree with us that this could be a hazard and adjust the drop.

At one point it is within 8-9" of the festoon posts....just doesn't look good to me.
Click to expand...

Next question is whether there is an existing easement for that drop to be over another property, if not then they about have to move it.

If there is an easement, customer with the festoon lights may still be able to request it be moved, but may be responsible for cost of moving it since it was allowed to be there.
 
National Safety Code

National Safety Code

The utility has to follow the National Safety Code and it does have clearance requirements for just about everything. The book is full of charts and diagrams. Our utility (Duke) has more stringent requirements. I believe the applicable table is 234-1 in my 2007 edition. The clearances range from 3.5 feet to 11 feet depending on how the installation is classified. I agree - let the utility make the call - this code applies to them.
 
dema said:
The utility has to follow the National Safety Code and it does have clearance requirements for just about everything. The book is full of charts and diagrams. Our utility (Duke) has more stringent requirements. I believe the applicable table is 234-1 in my 2007 edition. The clearances range from 3.5 feet to 11 feet depending on how the installation is classified. I agree - let the utility make the call - this code applies to them.
Click to expand...
I think many follow NESC as an added layer of cover liability wise, but I don't know that they are under any legal obligation to follow it.
 
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