Detached Building Panel without Disconnect 6-Throws

D

ddecart

Member
Looking at a house with a 100 amp feed to a main lug panel in a detached garage.
4-wire feed to the panel from the house
6 Spaces, 6 breakers in use
Unbonded
No EGC in place (easy fix)

Panel was installed maybe 15-20 years ago based on what I think is a date code.

Aside from local inspectors who might have said ok based on a misinterpretation with there being 6-throws, was this ever allowed (or not explicitly prohibited)?
Seems like one of those 'probably ok but not compliant' situations if I assume it was actually inspected at installation.

Opinions appreciated.
Dave
 
ddecart said:
4-wire feed to the panel from the house
...
No EGC in place (easy fix)
Click to expand...
I don't understand...if you have 4 wires, you have a EGC. Did you mean there is no grounding electrode and grounding electrode conductor.
ddecart said:
Aside from local inspectors who might have said ok based on a misinterpretation with there being 6-throws, was this ever allowed (or not explicitly prohibited)?
Click to expand...
That is still explicitly permitted.
225.33 Maximum Number of Disconnects.
(A) General.
The disconnecting means for each supply permitted by 225.30 shall consist of not more than six switches or six circuit breakers mounted in a single enclosure, in a group of separate enclosures, or in or on a switchboard or switchgear. There shall be no more than six disconnects per supply grouped in any one location.
Click to expand...
 
When there were Lighting and Appliance panelboards, the code required that the service disconnect to a detached structure be Suitable for Use as Service Equipment (SUSE). Sometime in the 2000's, the distinctions between Lighting and Appliance panelboards and Power panelboards went away. Many panelboards had a label saying something like "suitable for use as service equipment when not use as a lighting an appliance panelboard and not more than 6 breakers installed", and these labels persisted for quite a few years even though the code didn't define those terms anymore. This would disallow them as a remote building disconnect even when you only installed 6 breakers, at least according to our local inspectors.

However, that label was only put on panels of more than 6 slots. So if you have a 6 slot panel, I think it should have always been permitted as a building disconnect because you can't install more than 6 handles in it, except for maybe if it accepted twin breakers which threw another wrench into the marking.

All of this nonsense is gone now. A detached building doesn't need a disconnect marked SUSE, so any breaker panel with 6 breaker handles or less is allowed as the building disconnect unless marked Suitable for use ONLY AS Service Equipment.
 
suemarkp said:
All of this nonsense is gone now. A detached building doesn't need a disconnect marked SUSE, so any breaker panel with 6 breaker handles or less is allowed as the building disconnect unless marked Suitable for use ONLY AS Service Equipment.
Click to expand...
The requirement in 225.36, until the 2014 code, required the second building disconnect to be suitable for use as service equipment. That requirement should have gone away in the 2008 code when 250.30(B) was changed to prohibit the bonding of the neutral at the second building, but it took a couple of cycles for the change to be made in 225.36. The original requirement for equipment marked suitable for use as service equipment, was because that type of equipment has provisions to bond the neutral. The bonding of the neutral was required in the 2005 and earlier codes that did not require an EGC to be run with the feeder circuit conductors to the second building.
 
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