I have a problem any help would be great. Electrical panel in bathroom?

[augie47]

You shot yourself in the foot by labeling the "main" room BATH in the drawings and not labeling the other "room" as Utility Room or Equipment Room. I would also be less comfortable calling it a room if it does not have its own light fixture and switch.
I doubt that you can win with that argument.

Agree. Once I saw the plans, I think the inspector had the upper hand.

I don't see how you have clearances in the "Utility Closet" the closet is only 36 inches wide. The plans show the building furnance next to the panel. Is the furnance only 6 inches wide with all its piping ect.......???

My thoughts exactly.

 

[bobbymari]

agree with smart,your best bet is to flip these things around and be done with it. I see you guys have a nice handful of homeruns but its definetly doable and I doubt the owners would go for a divider wall in that layout

 

[hurk27]

I have to agree that the type of door should not dictate whether or not it is a separate room, as back in the days when AFCI was required only for bedroom outlets (prior to the 2008), it was said that a bathroom or closet was not in the bedroom if there was a doorway/jamb that separate the two rooms, the type of door was not in the picture or the fact the bath or closet was only accessible through the bedroom wasn't a factor in the determination, I think there was a MH graphic that showed this, and the question did come up many times at the IAEI sectional meetings.

But if the inspector will accept it, a wall next to the stacked W/D with a small door to this new room might allow the inspector to pass it.

As far as working clearance, well if the so called boiler is in fact a instantaneous water heater as many newer installations are, they can be very thin, similar to a tankless water heater, I know mine that I had in my trailer was about 6" or 7" deep at most, the code says the width of the equipment or 30" which ever is greater, if the heater comes to right edge of the panel and there is 15.5" from the left side of the panel to the wall on the left then it is good to go, the 30" doesn't center on the panel it can be moved to one side or the other just as long as there is 30".

 

[hurk27]

As a matter of fact here is a house I just did this last spring that has the panel in a laundry room just off the master bath, which in this photo the space right behind the panel is a stand up shower, then the whirlpool tub where the fancy ceiling cutout is, the door way is a pocket door, but what to say it wasn't going to be bi-folds, and while the rooms are much larger then in the OP where is the size of the room defined in this?

 

[ElectricVette]

I'd say the inspector would be very liberal if he didn't call that part of the bath.
Right now, I'd be more concerned about you having 110.26 working clearances once the boiler was installed.
Do you have a "Final" picture.

Here is a picture of the final product. The plan was drawn by a designer I had no say in lableing the room.

 

[RICK NAPIER]

I have often dealt with electricians argueing that the washer\dryer in both the op and hurk27 situations are in a seperate room from the bathroom and does not require GFCI protection. My general rule is for it to be a seperate room all the equipment in the room must have adequate space required and must be operable from that room without having to stand in the bathroom. Since this is not the case in the op situation then I would say it is part of the bathroom.

 

[Strathead]

I have often dealt with electricians argueing that the washer\dryer in both the op and hurk27 situations are in a seperate room from the bathroom and does not require GFCI protection. My general rule is for it to be a seperate room all the equipment in the room must have adequate space required and must be operable from that room without having to stand in the bathroom. Since this is not the case in the op situation then I would say it is part of the bathroom.

Reading through the 3 pages of posts, I came to a similar conclusion as you. I am not an inspector, but it looks to me like you can't close the door and work on the panel with the proper working space, therefor, even if the panel were not in the bathroom, the working space is. As another poster said, no light switch and luminaire is another issue I would have. I could see an AHJ looking the other way and making it clear to never do it again, but that is his/her call. There looks to be less problem of safety from the proximity of the bath fixtures, that there would be from the grounded metal of the water heater. For the OP, the inspector is not necessarily the AHJ and perhaps an appeal to the AHJ may get results. If I were to even think about this though, I would respectfully point out to the actual inspector that there is some grey here and request that the AHJ get involved with the understanding that when it can be fixed on the rough, it will never happen again. You never know.

 

[eprice]

A separate, non-electrical, but related problem I see is that the International Fuel Gas Code prohibits those fuel burning appliances in a bathroom or drawing combustion air from a bathroom. This may be a problem for the designer to fix, since more than electrical is involved.

Edit to say, I guess if the clothes dryer is electric with no gas supply provided, and the water heater is direct vent with combustion air taken from the outside, they would be ok.