residential interior breaker box

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krussell@scs-usa.com

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I have a few question on residential interior breaker box instalation.

1. Is there a code on breaker box height (dimension between the finished floor and main breaker or something along those lines)?

2. If you bring in power in conduit from underground, once you enter the house can you terminate the conduit at the base of the floor (in the wall) or do you have to continue the conduit into the breaker box? (if so where is the code on that?)

Regards,

Kirk
 
Height

Height

The center of the handle of a breaker in its highest point can not be more than 6' 7" above the floor. 240.24(A)
 
krussell@scs-usa.com said:
I have a few question on residential interior breaker box instalation.

1. Is there a code on breaker box height (dimension between the finished floor and main breaker or something along those lines)?
Click to expand...

404.8 (A)
krussell@scs-usa.com said:
2. If you bring in power in conduit from underground, once you enter the house can you terminate the conduit at the base of the floor (in the wall) or do you have to continue the conduit into the breaker box? (if so where is the code on that?)
Click to expand...
Terminate the conduit to what at the floor?
 
If the underground conduit is the power service to a building, the disconnect is supposed to be located at the nearest point of entrance of the conductors to the building. Since this ends up being kind of dumb for floor conduits, and inpracticle in other circumstandes, most jurisdictions adopt a maximum distance that service conductors or building feeders can come into a building before it hits the main disconnect. A value of 5' is common and here in WA it is 15'

If your local distance is 0, you can encase the conduit in 2" or more of concrete between the floor and the disconnect box (225.32 and 230.6).

You most likely can terminate the conduit immediately at the floor (as long as there are enough threads to attach a box with). But you can't continue individual wires in a wall without conduit. If you're using the box to transition from wires to cable, that would be OK as long as the box cover is accessible. If you ran a cable through the conduit, I believe you could terminate the conduit at the floor and just staple the cable with 12" of the conduit while continuing the cable to where it needs to go.
 
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krussell@scs-usa.com said:
1. 6'6" to top breaker....

2. If you bring in power in conduit from underground, once you enter the house can you terminate the conduit at the base of the floor (in the wall) or do you have to continue the conduit into the breaker box? (if so where is the code on that?)

Regards,

Kirk
Click to expand...
#2 I don't get - condiut out of the floor - then you want to just leave conductors or what? Feed cable through the conduit? Yes there are codes for that - just dont know which of a 1/2 dozen to apply.

Lost me....
 
krussell@scs-usa.com said:
I have a few question on residential interior breaker box instalation.

1. Is there a code on breaker box height (dimension between the finished floor and main breaker or something along those lines)?

2. If you bring in power in conduit from underground, once you enter the house can you terminate the conduit at the base of the floor (in the wall) or do you have to continue the conduit into the breaker box? (if so where is the code on that?)

1) 6' 6'' Is generally the traditional trade height for top of the panel. But the code says that a breaker can't be higher then 6' 6''. So the top of the
panel can be higher as long as the highest breaker is not higher then 6'6"

2)If you are useing residential Service entrance cable. Your conduit does not have
to go to the panel. You need a connector perhaps a bushing,too.
To protect the cable. And of course the
cable would have to be ran is such a way to meet the othe NEC requirements. Such as bing protected from physical damage.
Click to expand...
 
Kirk, I don't mean to put you down but it doesn?t seem to me that you have the knowledge or experience to handle this job. Is it safe to assume you have an electrician that you are going to work with or are you an electrician? :-?

If I am off base, I owe you an apology.
 
buckofdurham said:
2)If you are useing residential Service entrance cable. Your conduit does not have
to go to the panel. You need a connector perhaps a bushing,too.
To protect the cable. And of course the
cable would have to be ran is such a way to meet the othe NEC requirements. Such as bing protected from physical damage.
Click to expand...

The OP did say underground you know... :rolleyes:
 
No, I am not an electrician, but I am competent.

The # 6 ground wire question, I wasn't wrong;

The Direct burial cable, I wasn't wrong. (I may be faulted for the use of copper instead of aluminum, but it isn't wrong, and I think I would do it again).

The breaker hieght, I just didn't know, (This is the first house I have done that had a city insepector) I wouldn't dream of putting a main breaker at an uneasonable serviceable hieght.

Also on Question # 2 I have 2 pipe thru the slab that is directly below the breaker box, I am running direct burial cable from a meter pole underground entering the house thru the PVC pipe. I think It is not an unreasonable thought once you are in a wall with a cabe that the use of conduit isn't needed.

No Offense taken, but why wouldn't I do it myself?
 
krussell@scs-usa.com said:
No, I am not an electrician, but I am competent.

Also on Question # 2 I have 2 pipe thru the slab that is directly below the breaker box, I am running direct burial cable from a meter pole underground entering the house thru the PVC pipe. I think it is not an unreasonable thought once you are in a wall with a cable that the use of conduit isn't needed.

No offense taken, but why wouldn't I do it myself?
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Kirk, my concern is that without training, you will do something that you will regret later and could even be expensive or deadly.

An example of expensive and possibly dangerous. Install standard USE cable to you home and take it inside to your new panelboard. Seems OK but USE cable has not passed the UL vertical flame test and is not permitted for inside wiring unless it has a dual (or more) rating that includes type letters that are acceptable for inside wiring. After the home is inspected and red tagged, you now have to remove the USE cable, install a junction box, and replace the cable to your panelboard.

An example of deadly. You install smoke detectors in all the proper locations and didn't connect them together. This is missed on the inspection and you have a fire. The fire is established and propagates past the first smoke detector that was far enough away and you didn't hear it going off. A life is lost in your home.

You may be aware of both of these examples but there may be another that you are not aware of and you or your family may pay the price.

Permit me now to get off the soap box and answer your question.

Cable with a jacket is permitted to be run in the walls but non-jacketed cable like USE/XHHW is permitted only in a raceway when inside a building. Therefore, either use a dual rated cable the entire distance or convert to an acceptable wiring method for inside the home.

I wish you well. :)
 
charlie said:
. Install standard USE cable to you home and take it inside to your new panelboard. Seems OK but USE cable has not passed the UL vertical flame test and is not permitted for inside wiring unless it has a dual (or more) rating that includes type letters that are acceptable for inside wiring. After the home is inspected and red tagged, you now have to remove the USE cable, install a junction box, and replace the cable to your panelboard.

.

Cable with a jacket is permitted to be run in the walls but non-jacketed cable like USE/XHHW is permitted only in a raceway when inside a building. Therefore, either use a dual rated cable the entire distance or convert to an acceptable wiring method for inside the home.

I wish you well. :)
Click to expand...

That brings up an interesting point. the way I interpret it, USE cable is suitableto terminate directly to the metering equipment or service equipment. 1. If you are going stright to the top of the brekaer box (There are about 26" between the box and the floor) is it acceptable?

2. When You strip the jacket off you have 3 wires and a ground I don't have any cable here, but I believe that wire to be letteredd acceptabe for interior use, dose anyone know ?
 
krussell@scs-usa.com said:
That brings up an interesting point. the way I interpret it, USE cable is suitableto terminate directly to the metering equipment or service equipment. 1. If you are going stright to the top of the brekaer box (There are about 26" between the box and the floor) is it acceptable?

2. When You strip the jacket off you have 3 wires and a ground I don't have any cable here, but I believe that wire to be letteredd acceptabe for interior use, dose anyone know ?
Click to expand...

Is this a job that you are doing for yourself?
 
SiddMartin said:
I believe it is 6'7" to middle of top breaker (but who's measuring that close anyway??)
404.8 (A)
NEC 2005
Click to expand...

I should fess up - I changed something in a quote - in red - so it would be me who added the 6'6"..... Note time of post..... Dinner time.....
 
I fix stuff all the time that was done by people who prefaced the call with the words " I'm not an electrician but I'm competent." My question is, competent at what? As some of the responses have indicated this is not an easy DIY project. It takes a lot of years and experience to become competent to do electrical work that is code compliant and safe.:mad:
 
i have a dumb question: if the conduit stubs up from the slab directly below the panel, why NOT extend the conduit into the panel?

Is the conduit is cut or broken off at the slab and you cant get a coupling onto it?
 
The discussion of 'should you do it yourself' would fill many pages, with both pro and con.

My relation to the electrical industry is as a researcher, not an electrician. I tend to fall strongly on the side of 'if you are competent then why not DIY'.

IMHO the _key_ point _against_ DIY electrical work is not what you know, but what you don't know and don't have any awareness that there is something that you are missing. A proper electrical installation involves a goodly number of details, and being aware of these details requires lots of training.

A proper electrical installation can only be made with considerable knowledge on tap. You can pay for that knowledge in two ways: by hiring a professional or by taking the time to study. An internet forum can supplement such study, but it can never replace it.

If you come and ask a question and get an answer, there is no way that anyone here can know or predict the 10 questions that you didn't even know to ask. Because of this, the owner of this site has an explicit policy of not providing DIY assistance. There are other forums which will provide DIY assistance, but I advise you to only use such assistance with a background of your own study.

I expect that this thread will be locked soon, as it clearly violates the terms of this site.

Best Regards and Good Luck!

-Jon
 
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