Lights needed in water heater utility closets?

If you can close the door and be in the same room as the water heater, then it may be a utility room. If you can't, it's definitely a closet. Plenty of water heater closets in the world.

Cheers, Wayne
 
"Customer, meet Inspector. Inspector, this is Customer. Keeping in mind that I don't work free, please talk it over and let me know what I should do."
 
zbang said:
See post #9. All of it.

And the question has nothing to do with whether a piece of equipment may require maintenance, it has to do with where a permanently-installed light is required for the space.
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See 210.70(C)…all of it. Does this article not state exactly that, a lighting outlet is required…because you have something in it that will require servicing.
 
MyCleveland said:
See 210.70(C)…all of it. Does this article not state exactly that, a lighting outlet is required…because you have something in it that will require servicing.
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Has anybody said a "lighting outlet" is not required? I'm using my phone and maybe I'm missing it.
 
No lighting outlet is required in the room with the label F9 in the OP. A closet is not a utility room. Make the room 6' x 6', add another piece of equipment, that's a utility room.

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
No lighting outlet is required in the room with the label F9 in the OP. A closet is not a utility room. Make the room 6' x 6', add another piece of equipment, that's a utility room.

Cheers, Wayne
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Please help me with how 210.70(C) gets dismissed here?
How did you arrive at two items to classify the room as a utility room?
 
MyCleveland said:
Please help me with how 210.70(C) gets dismissed here?
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Because "closets" are not on the list of places where 210.70(C) applies. [FWIW, you're never going to actually enter the space marked "F9" in the OP. That install calls for a water heater designed to be serviced from the front, and you'd be in the hallway while you work on it. But these details are merely informative; what matters is the text of 210.70(C).]

MyCleveland said:
How did you arrive at two items to classify the room as a utility room?
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I don't mean to suggest that it needs to have two items to be a utility room. Rather, I'm saying: 3' x 3' with a 26"+ diameter water heater occupying basically all the space--that's definitely a closet. 6' x 6' with say a water softener next to the water heater, and you can walk in and close the door--that's definitely a utility room. 6' x 6' with just a water heater in it, probably that's a utility room too, just not quite willing to say that it couldn't be something else instead.

Cheers, Wayne
 
wwhitney said:
Because "closets" are not on the list of places where 210.70(C) applies. [FWIW, you're never going to actually enter the space marked "F9" in the OP. That install calls for a water heater designed to be serviced from the front, and you'd be in the hallway while you work on it. But these details are merely informative; what matters is the text of 210.70(C).]


I don't mean to suggest that it needs to have two items to be a utility room. Rather, I'm saying: 3' x 3' with a 26"+ diameter water heater occupying basically all the space--that's definitely a closet. 6' x 6' with say a water softener next to the water heater, and you can walk in and close the door--that's definitely a utility room. 6' x 6' with just a water heater in it, probably that's a utility room too, just not quite willing to say that it couldn't be something else instead.

Cheers, Wayne
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I agree with the end of your first paragraph….210.70(C).
Naming a space that contains equipment requiring servicing something other than utility room cannot relieve you from this lighting requirement. Simply my take away from this.
 
MyCleveland said:
Naming a space that contains equipment requiring servicing something other than utility room cannot relieve you from this lighting requirement.
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In your opinion, must said light be on the water-heater side of the door, or could it be in the hall?
 
MyCleveland said:
Naming a space that contains equipment requiring servicing something other than utility room...
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Which makes an attic a "utility room"? Language doesn't work that that way. The way the section is worded starts with specific locations (For attics and underfloor spaces, utility rooms, and basements,), then says this section is about only them (where these spaces) excluding any other unmentioned spaces, then further sets a condition on how they're being used (used for storage or contain equipment requiring servicing).

Or- (3) applies when you have storage/equipment and the space is already considered an attic/basement/utility room.

If an attic or basement isn't being used for storage and has no serviceable equipment, it doesn't need a light. If an underfloor space, not matter how small, is used for storage, it does need one. A kitchen with the water heater in the corner doesn't need a light per (3) because it's not a attic/basement/etc; OTOH it does because covered by (1).

MyCleveland said:
In the room. I could never image a design where I would rely on lighting from an adjacent space.
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The light at the top of a 3' square closet isn't going to help with servicing the front of a water heater. And calling a 3' square space a room is really stretching the definition, most people would call it a closet.
 
MyCleveland said:
Let’s leave it here, we are not in agreement and move on.
I wish the poster well in trying to convince the EI if he agrees a light is not needed.
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Most of us are in agreement. Note that in post #13 it included 210.70 (A),(B),&(C)
 
We had a closet that was just big enough for the water heater. If I installed a light in there it would be hard to get in and change the bulb. Besides that you want the light in front of you. If the light from the adjacent hallway lights up the water heater then I see no reason for the light inside the closet. I think others have made similar replies.
 
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