panel laundry

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I have two panelboards and one transformer in laundry room of motel. I know their has been prior threads but some say ok some say no. Is it okay per NEC 2014?
 
codequestion said:
I have two panelboards and one transformer in laundry room of motel. I know their has been prior threads but some say ok some say no. Is it okay per NEC 2014?
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Have you tried to find it yourself and where were you looking?

Roger
 
240.24(D) has always bothered for commerical/hospitality installations in that it is vague, but clear on placement for dwelling units. I did have not located panels in linen closets of hotels due to this rule.
 
Yea but think about it how many of you have been to commericial retail strip mall laudrament which i know is not same as hotel laundry but saw panelboards in those laudraments including small utilty room in laudrament that has panelboards. I am not saying hotel i spoke about has small utility room. The panels are out in laundry area.I am saying by 240.24 (D) panels in commericial retail strip mall laundrament would not be allowed or frawned upon? Just trying to figure out 240.20 (D) meaning..
 
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I have no problem with a panel in a laundry room, even one that has many machines, such as in the common area of an apartment complex that has no laundry in each unit. I like it especially because it puts the circuit breaker close to its load. You need to maintain working clearances, of course. But you would not run afoul of the "not near easily ignitable materials" requirement. A clothes closet will have clothes sitting on shelves or on hangers 100% of the time, and a human would be in the same vicinity for only brief moments at a time. If a circuit breaker sparked within a clothes closet, it might not be noticed until the post-fire investigations. In a laundry area, the clothes are either in the machines or are being moved by a human. It is not nearly the same risk.
 
Often the panels in a laundry room end up being more accessible than the ones in the "electrical closet" that is now filled with maintenance supplies stacked to the ceiling.
 
jumper said:
FMs just love it when they find that. I cannot count the times we got written up for that when I worked at a college in VA.
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So going back to motel laundry question would it be not okay pwr nec 240.24 (D) ro have panelboards and transformer in motel laundry room?

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The code is not going to tell you where to put it, it only tells you where you can't. So do you see laundry rooms listed in the "not permitted" section?
 
Little Bill said:
Ask the electrician that is working on this. Or have him contact your AHJ.
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I did they say to submit plans which i am in process of doing. Plans have not been approved and we need building permit before electrical permit. Please is commericial motel laundry room defined as cloth closet?

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Not trying to beat the dead horse, but I would say it depends on the Laundry Room type and what's stored in it and its layout: A hotel job I was designing only had a Linen storage closet that looked very similar to this:
hotel-linen-room-housekeeping.jpg


I do not understand why this would be any different than a clothing closet to be honest, and the material is certainly "easily ignitable", in addition to all the toiletries that are also stored in this room. In this instance, I would think that a linen storage closet is synonymous with clothing closet, but if this is a typical laundry/laundromat facility, there would be no problem with a panel in the main space. I believe the context plays the key role here.

As others have mentioned it will really come down to your AHJ's interpretation. I'm guessing the intention of this portion of the code is for arc flash incidents and reduce the probability of spreading a fire. I would think most arc flash incidents occur when someone is working on it, but I do know incidents can occur over time with loosened conductors, aging equipment, etc.
 
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