Sub Panel in Garage

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CRS

Member
Location
New Milford, CT
I have a detached garage about 50 feet away from house. I want to feed the garage from the house panel which is 200 amp. Does the panel in the garage have to have a main breaker? If so where in the code is this? Thank you
 
I'd look around 225.30; 225.31; 225.32 through 225.38. This is a real quick answer on my part, but many of the users here will give you better advice.:)
 
Read the above referenced code sections. Also read the label of the panel you install. Most are suitable for service equipment without a main breaker only if not used as a lighting and appliance panel as defined in 408.(34)(A).
 
The panel in the garage will need a disconnect. A main CB is the easiest way to accomplish this. Also the garage will require a grounded electrode system.
 
I agree with Trevor. You don't have to have a main breaker in your garage panel itself. But the building will have to have a means for disconnecting power to everything inside.

However, there are cases in which a main breaker in the garage panel will not fulfill the requirement for a building disconnect. The disconnecting means has to be "at a readily accessible location nearest the point of entrance of the conductors." 225.32. Some jurisdictions, and the State of Washington is among them, give a specific limit to the distance from the point of entrance to the location of the disconnecting means. Our limit is 15 feet. So if the garage panel is in the middle of the garage, it may take some extra effort to be able to take credit for the panel's main breaker as being the building's disconnecting means.
 
charlie b said:
I agree with Trevor. You don't have to have a main breaker in your garage panel itself. But the building will have to have a means for disconnecting power to everything inside.

However, there are cases in which a main breaker in the garage panel will not fulfill the requirement for a building disconnect. The disconnecting means has to be "at a readily accessible location nearest the point of entrance of the conductors." 225.32. Some jurisdictions, and the State of Washington is among them, give a specific limit to the distance from the point of entrance to the location of the disconnecting means. Our limit is 15 feet. So if the garage panel is in the middle of the garage, it may take some extra effort to be able to take credit for the panel's main breaker as being the building's disconnecting means.
Click to expand...


So are you saying that in Washington the disconnect must be within 15' of the garage entrance or within 15' of the entrance of the feeder conductors?
 
15 feet from the point at which the conductors enter the building to the location of the disconnecting means. Of course, if the conductors are run under the slab (or in some other manner are covered by at least 2 inches of concrete) for a distance into the building, they do not (yet) count as having entered the building. The 15 feet measurement would not start, until they conductors emerge from the concrete.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top