Main lug or Main breaker

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joeyww12000

joeyww12000

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Location
Chatsworth GA
Is there a NEC code that regulates when a panel must be main lug or main breaker? On our job we have a MDP in the main electrical room that is feeding a panel about 200 ft away in another seperate electrical room. The panel in the seperate electrical room is main lug. Another electrician says it should be a main breaker type since the main electrical room is so far away. Is he right?
 
The NEC never requires a main breaker panel, it does require overcurrent protection for panelboards, how and where that over current protection is provided is for the most part up to the designer.
 
As long as the breaker in the MDP is properly sized to protect the panel as well as the conductors feeding it, it's NEC legal.

Installing a main breaker then becomes a design issue.
 
Another electrician says it should be a main breaker type since the main electrical room is so far away. Is he right?
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I'm with Bob on this one per 408.36.

Distance is not a factor to consider per "This overcurrent protective device shall be located within or at any point on the supply side of the panelboard.
 
I had a small town inspector try to turn me down on a panel in a very small retail shop in a strip center, he wanted a main in the panel, even though there was one in the meter room. Since the panel had only five breakers in it it I told him I was using the six switch rule (which was total bull) and he passed it. Can't really blame him for not knowing code, because the city had him inspecting plumbing, HVAC, and everything else. The city even required him to wear a gun, since he was a code enforcement "officer". The real kicker was after he passed my install, he said "Off the record, I'm wiring my own house, what kind of wire do I need for switched receptacles, and the dryer?" But as everybody else has said, you do not have to have a main in the panel as long as the other conditions are met.
 
Oh 480, Don't be skerred, this is the perfect opportunity to do a "discreet" bid on the inspectors place! He (the inspector) can be too busy to mess around with "small things" like wiring!

Bid fair, he can't help it if he doesn't know what he doesn't know, and may be a great revenue stream forr "other friends" who have the same problem! Descreet can pay some mean bills!
 
hillbilly1 said:
I had a small town inspector try to turn me down on a panel in a very small retail shop in a strip center, he wanted a main in the panel, even though there was one in the meter room. Since the panel had only five breakers in it it I told him I was using the six switch rule (which was total bull) and he passed it. Can't really blame him for not knowing code, because the city had him inspecting plumbing, HVAC, and everything else. The city even required him to wear a gun, since he was a code enforcement "officer". The real kicker was after he passed my install, he said "Off the record, I'm wiring my own house, what kind of wire do I need for switched receptacles, and the dryer?" But as everybody else has said, you do not have to have a main in the panel as long as the other conditions are met.
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Gosh!
Everybody knows that you need that special 220volt wire for a dryer.
 
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