NEC 230.6 Conductors Considered Outside the (a) Building

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zabawire

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As per NEC article 230.6: An electrical conductor/cable is considered to be outside of a building as long as the the conditions in such article are met. If the conductors/cables are installed in a vault as per article 450, part III, does this implied that the equipment to which these conductors/cables are terminated at, in the vault, are as well considered outside of the building?I am not able to find anything in the NEC that supports my interpretation of the above mentioned articles. Please shine some new light as to my question. Thank you.
 
I am certainly not one to ask as I never worked in a vault but I would think that the vault would be a structure and thus would be inside. Let's see what the others say. At least this will bump you to the top. :D
 
I don?t think there is any meaning to the notion of equipment being inside or outside a building. By contrast, the notion of certain conductors being outside a building has meaning, and that is why they went through the trouble of letting us know how to tell if the conductors are outside. See for example 230.70(A)(1).
 
Is this a vault, like a transformer vault? Then I would say that yes it is outside and everything needs to be listed for a wet location. Is this one of the newer phone room type vaults then I would say maybe. Usually for the phone room, we would only be responsible up to the vault.
 
Indeed, it is a Transformer Vault/room for electric power distribution in a high rise building. The electric utility will be installating inside the vault all of the cables/ conductors, transformers and all of the necessary accesories for the medium voltage distribution system. In simple words, my understanding is that the electrical inspector has no jurisdiction on how the electrical system is build in the transformer rooms/vaults as long as they are built per article 450, part III. Am I interpreting the code correctly? Please advise and thank you in advance.
 
zabawire said:
Indeed, it is a Transformer Vault/room for electric power distribution in a high rise building. The electric utility will be installating inside the vault all of the cables/ conductors, transformers and all of the necessary accesories for the medium voltage distribution system. In simple words, my understanding is that the electrical inspector has no jurisdiction on how the electrical system is build in the transformer rooms/vaults as long as they are built per article 450, part III. Am I interpreting the code correctly? Please advise and thank you in advance.
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Unless it is utility owned then the inspector has jurisdiction-- at least I think that would be the case.
 
I agree with Dennis. The inspector's jurisdiction does not begin at the wall of the building. It begins where the utility-owned equipment ends.
 
I would agree with both Dennis and Charlie, but as Dennis said that means a utility owned transformer, then the inspector starts at the load side of the meter.
 
zabawire said:
In simple words, my understanding is that the electrical inspector has no jurisdiction on how the electrical system is build in the transformer rooms/vaults as long as they are built per article 450, part III.
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I agree with the others, this sounds utility controlled and in that case not one bit of the NEC applies unless the utility specifies it. But more than likely they will use the NESC for their design.
 
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