Feeding Thru a Panel

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Little Bill

Little Bill

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Tennessee NEC:2017
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Semi-Retired Electrician
Lets say you have a main panel board and you put a sub panel beside it. The subpanel will feed new loads. In the main panel, there is a load/circuit that is being moved. Do you see a problem with, instead of piping out of the main with the conductors, you feed them into the subpanel and pipe them out with the new feeds? They would just go straight through and not land on a breaker. It would make for a faster/cleaner installation. I can't find anything prohibiting it.
 
312.8 Switch and Overcurrent Device Enclosures with Splices, Taps, and Feed-Through Conductors. The wiring space of enclosures for switches or overcurrent devices shall be permitted for conductors feeding through, spliced,or tapping off to other enclosures, switches, or overcurrent devices where all of the following conditions are met:



(1) The total of all conductors installed at any cross section

of the wiring space does not exceed 40 percent of the

cross-sectional area of that space.

(2) The total area of all conductors, splices, and taps installed

at any cross section of the wiring space does not

exceed 75 percent of the cross-sectional area of that

space.

(3) A warning label complying with 110.21(B) is applied

to the enclosure that identifies the closest disconnecting

means for any feed-through conductors.
 
Yes, perfectly compliant if just for a circuit or two or if there's plenty of space in the enclosure.

I will add that I don't regard it as best practice when relocating a number of loads, as is done in my industry for backup panels. In reality, nobody is going to measure that cross sectional area mentioned in the code and it becomes a judgment call when the enclosure becomes too full of extra wires and splices. I've certainly seen a few that in my opinion crossed the line.
 
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