Ready access

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hhsting

Senior Member
Location
Glen bunie, md, us
Occupation
Junior plan reviewer
I have tenant space which is not guest room or guest suites in third floor of building. All branch circuits are fed from electrical room. The electrical room is maintained by personnel 24 hours. They can call the person to get access to branch circuit.

240.24(B) says each occupant must have ready access to its overcurrent protection devices. Their is not exception for branch circuit if its Not guest suites or guest room.

Would the first paragraph arrangement be call ready accessible or not? I am confused by the definition ready accessible
 
petersonra

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Accessible, Readily (Readily Accessible). Capable of being
reached quickly for operation, renewal, or inspections without
requiring those to whom ready access is requisite to take
actions such as to use tools (other than keys), to climb over or
under, to remove obstacles, or to resort to portable ladders,
and so forth. (CMP-1)
Informational Note: Use of keys is a common practice under
controlled or supervised conditions and a common alternative
to the ready access requirements under such supervised conditions
as provided elsewhere in the NEC.
Click to expand...
It seems to me that if they can call someone to get access that has the key it meets the requirements of being "readily accessible".
 
don_resqcapt19

don_resqcapt19

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Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
There is actually someone on site 24/7 that can open the room when called by the tenant?

If so, I think it is fine, but if there is not someone onsite 24/7 to open the door, in my opinion, it is not acceptable.
"Ready access" is not a defined term in the NEC and I do not see it being the same as "readily accessible".
 
H

hhsting

Senior Member
Location
Glen bunie, md, us
Occupation
Junior plan reviewer
don_resqcapt19 said:
There is actually someone on site 24/7 that can open the room when called by the tenant?

If so, I think it is fine, but if there is not someone onsite 24/7 to open the door, in my opinion, it is not acceptable.
"Ready access" is not a defined term in the NEC and I do not see it being the same as "readily accessible".
Click to expand...

Well the tenant space is in hotel but its not guest room or guest suites. Its going to be a small bar. Some management has to be their with keys to electrical room
 
don_resqcapt19

don_resqcapt19

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
retired electrician
hhsting said:
Well the tenant space is in hotel but its not guest room or guest suites. Its going to be a small bar. Some management has to be their with keys to electrical room
Click to expand...
If I am the tenant, I am going to be asking for a feeder to my area with a subpanel. Not going to want to wait to get a key from someone else to reset a breaker when I have customers being inconvenienced, but that would be beyond the code requirement.

IF there is someone there 24/7 that actually has the keys, and management does not always have those keys, the installation would be code compliant.
 
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