Electrical room occupancy

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hhsting

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Glen bunie, md, us
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Junior plan reviewer
Is electrical room considered by IBC or NEC to be occupancy? Just regular electrical room no office, no storage etc. Question stems from 230.40 exception no.1 I have multiple sets of service entrance conductors running to electrical room designer thinks it’s occupancy or group of occupancies and so exception no. 1 applies.
 
Very well attached sketch shows two figures. I understand left hand side 230.40 exception no. 2 would apply for that install.

But what about right hand side with main breaker what 230.40 exception allow it? It can’t be 230.40 exception no. 1 note service entrance conductor terminate in Electrical room would not be running to an occupancy or group occupancies post #2. It cannot be 230.40 exception no.2 because 2 to 6 service disconnect it mentions. What exception of 230.4 it applies?
 

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hhsting said:
Please see 230.40 exception no. 1 which mentions service entrance conductor run to occupancy or group of occupancies. Whatever that means is what I mean in that context by occupancy and group of occupancies.
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I think this is a bit of a gray area because the NEC does not define "occupancy". I think you have to talk to the applicable building department and find out what exactly an occupancy is. Let me give you two examples: In one area I work (that is more lax) , inspectors treat "occupancy" as basically just meaning "occupant" so I can use 230.40 Ex #1 to run a SEC set to each apartment in say a three unit building. In another area, "occupancy" is a very specific legal term and gets into zoning, fire separations, etc. and there is a process to get a space defined as an "occupancy".
 
electrofelon said:
I think this is a bit of a gray area because the NEC does not define "occupancy". I think you have to talk to the applicable building department and find out what exactly an occupancy is. Let me give you two examples: In one area I work (that is more lax) , inspectors treat "occupancy" as basically just meaning "occupant" so I can use 230.40 Ex #1 to run a SEC set to each apartment in say a three unit building. In another area, "occupancy" is a very specific legal term and gets into zoning, fire separations, etc. and there is a process to get a space defined as an "occupancy".
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What are your thoughts about this occupancy meaning?


Occupancy

What does NEC 2014 Section 230.40 exception no. 1 mean when it says occupancy or group of occupancies?
forums.mikeholt.com
 
As I said, NEC does not define, you would have to talk to the building department to see if a building has multiple occupancies. Separate space or separate tenant does not necessarily mean it's a different/multiple occupancy.
 
electrofelon said:
As I said, NEC does not define, you would have to talk to the building department to see if a building has multiple occupancies. Separate space or separate tenant does not necessarily mean it's a different/multiple occupancy.
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I know I can google but so many. Any good building forum anyone know?
 
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