Tenant panel and one branch ckt

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hhsting

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Glen bunie, md, us
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Junior plan reviewer
Attached sketch I have on first floor four tenant spaces in office building with four stories. The Panel G from which four tenants branch circuits are fed out of is in common area electric room. Typically you have one subpanel for each tenant feeding branch circuits however in my case their is one Panel G in common area electric room. The keys to the electric room are given to each tenant. Branch circuits for power for each tenant is fed from Panel G.

However, all lights for all four tenants are fed from one branch circuit breaker in Panel G.

The questions are:

1. Is one branch circuit breaker for light for all tenant against code?

2. Would giving the keys to each tenant make installation compliant with NEC 2014 Article 240.24(B) even though the panel is located in electric room common area?
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hhsting said:
Attached sketch I have on first floor four tenant spaces in office building with four stories. The Panel G from which four tenants branch circuits are fed out of is in common area electric room. Typically you have one subpanel for each tenant feeding branch circuits however in my case their is one Panel G in common area electric room. The keys to the electric room are given to each tenant. Branch circuits for power for each tenant is fed from Panel G.

However, all lights for all four tenants are fed from one branch circuit breaker in Panel G.

The questions are:

1. Is one branch circuit breaker for light for all tenant against code?

2. Would giving the keys to each tenant make installation compliant with NEC 2014 Article 240.24(B) even though the panel is located in electric room common area?

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1. Yes.
2. No.
 
I will have to disagree with gadfly56.

My answer to #2 is "Yes." I don't like the notion, but it does fit in with the way article 240.24(B) is worded. Nothing says that a tenant has to be the only one who has access to their branch circuit breakers.

I think #1 is trickier than it may appear, on the surface, to be. The relevant rule is 210.25(B). I believe its intent is to say that a panel located in tenant space A cannot power lights in other tenant spaces or in common areas. But that is not what is happening here. The actual words are (edited to remove words not relevant to this issue), ". . . circuits installed for . . . lighting . . . for . . . common areas of . . . a multi-occupancy building shall not be supplied from equipment that supplies an individual . . . tenant space." You don't have "equipment that supplies an individual tenant space." Rather, you have a single piece of equipment that supplies all tenant spaces. Bottom line, my answer to #1 is "No."
 
charlie b said:
I will have to disagree with gadfly56.

My answer to #2 is "Yes." I don't like the notion, but it does fit in with the way article 240.24(B) is worded. Nothing says that a tenant has to be the only one who has access to their branch circuit breakers.

I think #1 is trickier than it may appear, on the surface, to be. The relevant rule is 210.25(B). I believe its intent is to say that a panel located in tenant space A cannot power lights in other tenant spaces or in common areas. But that is not what is happening here. The actual words are (edited to remove words not relevant to this issue), ". . . circuits installed for . . . lighting . . . for . . . common areas of . . . a multi-occupancy building shall not be supplied from equipment that supplies an individual . . . tenant space." You don't have "equipment that supplies an individual tenant space." Rather, you have a single piece of equipment that supplies all tenant spaces. Bottom line, my answer to #1 is "No."
Click to expand...

I'd suggest the relevant rule is 210.25(A):

210.25 Branch Circuits in Buildings with More Than
One Occupancy.

(A) Dwelling Unit Branch Circuits. Branch circuits in
each dwelling unit shall supply only loads within that dwelling
unit or loads associated only with that dwelling unit.

The lighting circuit in any dwelling is certainly a branch circuit, it certainly supplies loads, and it is certainly supplying more than one dwelling unit once it leaves the first dwelling unit it serves.

I'll geek to changing the answer to #2 to a "yes".
 
gadfly56 said:
I'd suggest the relevant rule is 210.25(A):

210.25 Branch Circuits in Buildings with More Than
One Occupancy.

(A) Dwelling Unit Branch Circuits. Branch circuits in
each dwelling unit shall supply only loads within that dwelling
unit or loads associated only with that dwelling unit.

The lighting circuit in any dwelling is certainly a branch circuit, it certainly supplies loads, and it is certainly supplying more than one dwelling unit once it leaves the first dwelling unit it serves.

I'll geek to changing the answer to #2 to a "yes".
Click to expand...
What I have is not dewelling unit but commericial office space.

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hhsting said:
What I have is not dewelling unit but commericial office space.

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Ahhhhh, when you said "tenant" I automatically thought "dwelling unit". :slaphead: In that case, I'll change my "no" to a "yes".
 
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