Hello all, I have a sub panel location that seems to be troubling me. The architect wants to put the sub panel in a mechanical room on the adjacent wall behind the door. So when the door opens it opens into the panel. I cannot find anything in the NEC that prohibits this location 110.26.
Sub or main panel location
- Thread starter T DeNault
- Start date
- Status
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Journeyman Electrician (retired)
Panels are permitted behind doors.
Mr. Serious
Senior Member
- Location
- Oklahoma, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
Although permitted by code, it feels like a cheap cop-out to put it there, because it's going to make the electrician more uncomfortable working on it live.
Technically the arc flash will get you whether the panel is behind the door or not, it moves faster than you can run. But that's assuming that you don't foresee it one or two seconds before it happens.
Technically the arc flash will get you whether the panel is behind the door or not, it moves faster than you can run. But that's assuming that you don't foresee it one or two seconds before it happens.
rc/retired
Senior Member
- Location
- Bellvue, Colorado
- Occupation
- Master Electrician/Inspector retired
Not a problem. Never was a problem. Never will be a problem unless a CMP makes it a problem.
Ron
Ron
Which IMO makes it a great place.There's actually a positive side in that the floor space in front of the panel is usually clear
Mr. Serious
Senior Member
- Location
- Oklahoma, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Contractor
When I was still an apprentice without extensive code knowledge, they let me help design the power distribution for a 12,000 square foot house with five subpanels, and I put 3 of the panels in walls behind doors in closets. It makes sense because even at an early stage of the design process, you know that space is going to be clear. It's a wall behind a door. What else could they use it for? Only later I learned that you're no longer allowed to put a panel in a clothes closet. Oops. My employer should have known, at least. I was just an apprentice and I was used to seeing panels in clothes closets because we worked on a lot of older houses. The house was out of city limits so it didn't require inspection. Otherwise we would have had to relocate 2 or 3 subpanels.
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