Transporting and fitting a new switchboard into a room
- Thread starter Tainted
- Start date
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- Location
- San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
- Occupation
- Electrical Engineer
Disassembling a SB will likely not be a sanctioned option from the manufacturer’s standpoint. Bus bracing is too critical for the manufacturer to leave it up to someone in the field to assemble it. One over tightened bus support that gets a hidden crack and it’s going to fail during a fault. For the same reason, you will often find instructions telling you that you cannot tilt a SB more than so much off of vertical (often 15deg) because the frame will skew and can crack the bus supports. That’s why you see devices called “Tip and Tells” stuck to them during shipping so that if the truckers lay them over in transit, you know not to install them. So that usually precludes laying it on its side.
In a similar basement situation, I found it cheapest to cut in bigger doors, even though mine were concrete slab walls. Concrete cutters were in and out in 1 day, door framers came in after I left so that didn’t hold up my job. I’ve seen others where they cut into the floor and installed steel plate doors afterward.
And sometimes, you just have to tell someone “No, I can’t put it there for numerous technical and safety related issues” and force them to rethink that decision. For example, if the doors are that small, do they qualify as safe egress for a 1200A switchboard location?
PS: here is what the Eaton PowerLine SB installation manual says;
In a similar basement situation, I found it cheapest to cut in bigger doors, even though mine were concrete slab walls. Concrete cutters were in and out in 1 day, door framers came in after I left so that didn’t hold up my job. I’ve seen others where they cut into the floor and installed steel plate doors afterward.
And sometimes, you just have to tell someone “No, I can’t put it there for numerous technical and safety related issues” and force them to rethink that decision. For example, if the doors are that small, do they qualify as safe egress for a 1200A switchboard location?
PS: here is what the Eaton PowerLine SB installation manual says;
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electrofelon
Senior Member
- Location
- Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
I was going to say the same thing. Why is a switch board needed? Perhaps he needs a metering section?
No metering section, it will feed meter banks. It just prefer fuses because they are much better at handling faults. again, it's just a presence of mine
electrofelon
Senior Member
- Location
- Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
Seems like maybe a good application for letting go of a preference, but do what you must. You could look at siemens panelboards. A P4 can do fusible switches up to 200A, and a P5 will do fusible up to 1200A. Probably a lot easier to get in there.
might consider the P5, it looks decent
electrofelon
Senior Member
- Location
- Cherry Valley NY, Seattle, WA
I use siemens for all my mid to large size panelboards. I really like them. IF you want to take a preliminary look , here is the panelboards catalog:
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