Installing a Panelboard Switch Above 6'7"

[ttlazar]

Can you install a panelboard switch above 6'7" if it is going to feed equipment and it is not going to be used as the primary means of turning the equipment off and on? Reference NEC 2005 404.8(A). I will have the main breaker of the panel at about 4' Above Finish Floor, but the top four breakers will be above 6'7". My inspector believes I cannot install the panel b/c of 404.8(A). I would also like to give him an example of when "a circuit breaker is used as a switch" and when it is not.

 

[beanland]

240 something or other

240 something or other

There is a similar clause relating to circuit breakers, 240.21 I think. Same 2 meter height. I agree with the AHJ, per these code sections, the top breaker should not be located more than 2m above the working surface.

 

[GoldDigger]

There is a similar clause relating to circuit breakers, 240.21 I think. Same 2 meter height. I agree with the AHJ, per these code sections, the top breaker should not be located more than 2m above the working surface.

The only exception available to you would be to put accessible OCPD's downstream of all of the breakers in question, making them feeder and not branch OCPDs.
Or just move those branch circuits to an adjacent subpanel.