Service through another building

[Shoe]

It seems like I should know the answer to this, but having never faced the question before, I am unsure.

I have a situation where a building-owner of a multi-tenant commerical building is selling a portion of the building to another entitiy.

The service to this multi-tenant building is currently one lateral terminating in multiple meter packs, which then extend to the individual suites.

The area that is being sold is represents two suites and will be separated from the rest of the buliding by a 3-hour firewall (essentially a separate facility).

If a legal agreement exists between the new building owner and current building owner that they can continue to use the same electrical service (running through the adjacent facility), is this legal from a code standpoint? Or do we need to bring in a new service for this part of the building that is being sold-off?

Any insights would be appreciated!

 

[Shoe]

I think I have some ideas but would appreciate some weigh-in from others:

NEC 230.3 does not permit a service conductors supplying one building to pass through another.

However, the conductors interior to the adjacent building will technically be feeders and not service conductors, because the meter/disconnects are on the outside of the building.

If we assume they are feeders, I think we still have a violation of 225.30, which states that all buildings fed by "feeders" through another building need to be "under single management".

In other words, it appears my suspicions are correct, and you cannot do this. Let me know if you agree or disagree with this approach.

 

[rlundsrud]

My short answer is no, but if you want a clarification simply call the AHJ. It strikes me as a little bit of a gray area, and whenever that happens it is always best to coordinate with the building department. It is a cheap question now versus an expensive lesson later.

Bob

 

[augie47]

Upfront, I don't have a clear answer.
Should... been there and forgot (danged old age)
Shoe may be correct, but I don't read that into 225.30 as the feeder is not "serving" the 1st building just passing thru.
It may or may not have any bearing, but locally our Building guys will not accept a 3 hr fire wall as establishing a "separate" building.

We will see what others say.

 

[mgookin]

As an AHJ my philosophy has always been "If you can't build it like that, you can't make it like that".

I'm not sure if this property owner is creating a condominium or subdividing a parcel. But in either case, if plans came to me to develop two properties and one has it's feeders going through another building and on another property, I'd get pretty big eyeballs on that one. I'd want them to explain to me how it works with life safety (is the main disco on the man's property or his neighbors property), how is it going to be serviced via an access easement or similar, etc. And what happens when that other man wants to tear his building down or just doesn't want some other guy's power coming through his building?

The simple solution is get a permit and do some construction. Set it up as if it were being built like that today.