Service entrance equipment and panels

Status
Not open for further replies.
bernardmulherin1978

bernardmulherin1978

Member
Location
augusta georgia
I have a building I am doing. 120/208 1200 amp. I have pulled mc cable, some areas were going to be exposed so I ran conduit, I am mounting the panels now and would like some ideas as to how to bring it all together, mainly all the mc cables, my panels ,two are roughly 30 inches wide and 48 inches tall, I am considering a trough, with 2 foot nipples in between trough and panel, I haven't figured what's size nipples yet, but wanted to get some feed back on what y'all have done, I do big pipe jobs, mc is new to me, but want it to look good, any ideas, thankyou

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk
 
We will usually put a gutter up near the ceiling and run the MC's into that with the wiring chasing all the way down to the panels, no splices. Ground bar in the gutter to take care of all the EGC's and to save on pipe fill down to the panels. If you have a high ceiling, we'd use the 310.15(A)2 exception to get around derating since we'd be longer than a 2' nipple up to the gutter.

Depending on wire quantity and size, we'd be anywhere from 2" to 3" usually, just depends on my mood.
 
bernardmulherin1978 said:
OK, I have two 225 amp panels going side by side, would you get one gutter to go the whole way for both panels or individual gutters
Click to expand...

Each has its advantage. Versatility with one large gutter to allocate circuits to either panel, or two lighter gutters and covers to install individually.

Compare costs, and look into getting pre-punched KOs like panel enclosures come with to eliminate a whole bunch of hole-sawing.
 
bernardmulherin1978 said:
Are you saying the gutter boxes come with knock outs in them, like your panels

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I'm suggesting they can be special-ordered. Maybe a bunch of 1/2"-3/4" concentrics on the top surface, and a couple of 2"-3" concentrics on the bottom.
 
To answer your questions:

We would bring all the branch circuit conduits and mc's into the gutter.

We would use gutters without pre-punched KO's, that is our preference, as I've found they are never in the right spot and the little bit gained by having some of them prepunched is quickly negated by the others in the wrong spots which cost us more labor to work around them.

We would most likely run one long gutter over both panels, keeping in mind to stay under 30 current carrying conductors in any one cross section, although you may be able to apply the code article and exception I posted above if you go over that quantity.
 
OK, thankyou guys, I am more or less more of a conduit type person, so I wanted to get some feedback from some guys who had more mc experience, I think I probably got a good idea what I will do from listening to y'all, thankyou if you think of anything else let me know

Sent from my SM-A205U using Tapatalk
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top