Commercial Building Main Disconnect Requirements

[oldude]

THANKS

THANKS

What about shunt trips? Does that eliminate the need for an outside disconnect? Red triangle showing the thieves where to turn it off? Is a shunt trip a code requirement or a local fire code requirement? We provide 'em on all of our pump stations when the service is a CT metered service with the service disconnect inside of a locked door. We (the local water utility) never seemed to get a straight answer about needing one or not.

Thanks for your reply. I would think a shunt trip breaker can be ordered in alot of panels. It would save disconnect and wiring cost. I don't know the answer to your question though. A sign indicating "Emergency Power Disconnect" at the button would surely be seen by firefighters.

You made me think of some gasoline service station projects I worked on a long time ago that had a big emergency stop mushroom button right on the front of the building. If I recall correctly, it was a maintained push-pull button that powered a contactor that broke all circuits feeding the gas pumps.

And again, seems like we always put an exterior main disconnect at the service entrance on these service stations. Maybe it was my first boss, when I was an apprentice, that always wanted an outside main disconnect on commercial buildings. This could be where I got the notion that all commercial buildings should have one, even though not required by code. First boss is dead and gone now, he was a mean old bastard, but he taught me alot, perhaps some of what he taught was right, some of it wrong. When I moved on from his company to my first journeyman job, he wrote a real good letter of reference for me, God Bless Him. Thanks, oldude

 

[USMC1302]

Hurk:

I can't ever recall NIPSCO providing hot stick training for fire dept personnel, although they may have many years ago. They do provide examples of what not to do, and have a video of a meter being pulled with resultant arc flash. I believe we still have one of those socket tools to pull the meter, but try to avoid that if possible. As I'm sure you're aware, response time from POCO ain't what it used to be. My dad worked for them in CP when I was little. We also had gloves on the truck, but with all the training and testing requirements, got rid of those too. Hard enough to meet NFPA requirements to fight fires, let alone run around with hotsticks.

 

[Ragin Cajun]

What about shunt trips? Does that eliminate the need for an outside disconnect? Red triangle showing the thieves where to turn it off? Is a shunt trip a code requirement or a local fire code requirement? We provide 'em on all of our pump stations when the service is a CT metered service with the service disconnect inside of a locked door. We (the local water utility) never seemed to get a straight answer about needing one or not.

I have provided for this before. However, I mounted the kill switch in a "Knox Box" so only the FD had access. Sure didn't want vandals playing around with the switch!

As for pulling the meter, you wouldn't see me doing that!!! And if it's a large service, the meter is off CT's so that will not kill power. But it may mess up the CT's with a potential open CT secondary.

RC