Panelboard mounted in equipment, allowed to be really low?

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jjs

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This does not seem right. Seems like it would be dangerous to work on. Or is it because it is part of a manufactured piece of equipment that it can be so low?
This is in a restaurant.

KES breaker panel.jpg
 
jjs said:
This does not seem right. Seems like it would be dangerous to work on. Or is it because it is part of a manufactured piece of equipment that it can be so low?
This is in a restaurant.

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If equipment is listed with that panel as a part of it NEC doesn't apply.

That said NEC has no minimum height for a panelboard - one exception I can think of is for mobile home service equipment needs to be 24" off the ground IIRC.
 
Think of it this way. If it were a control panel built with separate breakers clamped onto DIN rail, then mounted that low, you would likely not have questioned it. The machine builder just used a different format for the breakers. I've done it myself on control panels, it's usually more expensive from a hardware perspective, but if you have a lot of breakers, it can save labor time because of the bus bar distribution instead of line side wiring.
 
There are no codes that I'm aware of that limit how low you can mount a panel. The aforementioned trailer parks, not sure if that Dimension is to the bottom of the panel. Have seen quite a few 50 and 100 amp disconnects mounted less than a foot off the ground
 
JFletcher said:
There are no codes that I'm aware of that limit how low you can mount a panel. The aforementioned trailer parks, not sure if that Dimension is to the bottom of the panel. Have seen quite a few 50 and 100 amp disconnects mounted less than a foot off the ground
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2014 NEC says "Outdoor mobile home disconnecting means shall be installed so the bottom of the enclosure containing the disconnecting means is not less than 600 mm (2 ft) above finished grade or working platform."

Nobody knows why the limitation for mobile homes - yet identical equipment serving something other then a mobile home could be practically right on the ground or working platform.
 
kwired said:
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Nobody knows why the limitation for mobile homes - yet identical equipment serving something other then a mobile home could be practically right on the ground or working platform.
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Probably because of the known phenomenon of mobile home parks being magnets for all manner of natural disaster... so int his case, flooding.
 
Jraef said:
Probably because of the known phenomenon of mobile home parks being magnets for all manner of natural disaster... so int his case, flooding.
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Not all that logical to me. Seen lots of mobile homes that have little risk of flooding and many other places where that risk is high. Seen a few times where 6 feet wasn't high enough.
 
kwired said:
Not all that logical to me. Seen lots of mobile homes that have little risk of flooding and many other places where that risk is high. Seen a few times where 6 feet wasn't high enough.
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It was a joke...
My wife is from Minnesota, a common joke in her family (many of whom live in "doublewides") is that if you want to avoid having your town get hit by a tornado, put in mobile home parks just outside of town, because the tornado will veer over to hit them and miss you.
 
Jraef said:
It was a joke...
My wife is from Minnesota, a common joke in her family (many of whom live in "doublewides") is that if you want to avoid having your town get hit by a tornado, put in mobile home parks just outside of town, because the tornado will veer over to hit them and miss you.
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I kind of got it, just didn't know how serious you may have been about it.
 
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