Dale001289
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
Working Clearance
- Thread starter makoester1
- Start date
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Dale001289
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
Wrong answer. Conduit needs to be routed overhead with min 7’-6” head clearance.
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7’ 6” clearance for conduit on top of a cooling tower?
Not saying you’re wrong, but seems impractical.
petersonra
Senior Member
- Location
- Northern illinois
- Occupation
- engineer
if you had looked and read what it actually says you would likely understand this is not a trip hazrad by OSHA standards.
Dale001289
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
7’ 6” clearance for conduit on top of a cooling tower?
Not saying you’re wrong, but seems impractical.
Do you think it’s excessive? Consider this: a 6’-6” man with a hard hat is about 6’-10”.
I’m Refinery and chemical industry.
Some clients prefer 8’ but some will accept 7’- always part of their electrical design specifications
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GerryB
Senior Member
- Location
- woodbridge, ct. USA
Well now you're really out of control.
I see you are not an electrician and work in the oil industry, maybe. Maybe OSHA is more strict or involved there. You will not see an install like pictured where they construct supports every ten feet to raise the conduit 7'6". I have seen large solar flat roof commercial installs with conduits laying across the roof. (actually to your point a possible tripping hazard for fire fighters, nonetheless approved by inspectors.) I see in the OP's pic that step up appears to have removable panels (wingnuts). So even walking on that you could stumble on those. This is an area for qualified personnel.Dale001289
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
Well now you're really out of control.
Yes petrochemical is a far more conservative discipline than commercial or light industry.
I am an electrical designer with 40 years of refinery and chemical plant experience. I’ve been on-site with construction/maintenance electricians for approximately one third of that time, (not just an office guy). Consider this: at what height would you install stanchion mounted lighting fixtures around the perimeter of a cooling tower? Most clients insist on 7’-6” as bottom of fixture elevation.
Nice debate. I am through with his thread. Thanks to all
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kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
Once again, all that NEC says is "likely to require examination, adjustment, servicing, or maintenance while energized".
What is "likely" is subject to interpretation, and you will find AHJ's that vary on interpretation. Many don't require this working clearance in front of a non fused disconnect.
If one wanted to be really strict, you couldn't even have a junction box without that clearance because when troubleshooting one may (examine) take voltage or current measurements from any of them. This would mean every junction box up on the ceiling up high on a wall or column, etc. needs at least a 30 x 36 platform associated with it for working clearance reasons. Many such items in crawl spaces wouldn't comply with working spaces either.
What is "likely" is subject to interpretation, and you will find AHJ's that vary on interpretation. Many don't require this working clearance in front of a non fused disconnect.
If one wanted to be really strict, you couldn't even have a junction box without that clearance because when troubleshooting one may (examine) take voltage or current measurements from any of them. This would mean every junction box up on the ceiling up high on a wall or column, etc. needs at least a 30 x 36 platform associated with it for working clearance reasons. Many such items in crawl spaces wouldn't comply with working spaces either.
Dale001289
Senior Member
- Location
- Georgia
The term “junction box” is a very broad one and can mean many things. JBs are not always required to be accessible like a disconnecting device. In my world, refinery and chemical we don’t deal with ‘crawl spaces’ and your platform example strikes me as rather strange. One can conjure up countless scenarios I’m sure but at the end of the day common sense must prevail.
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kwired
Electron manager
- Location
- NE Nebraska
- Occupation
- EC
I know, my point is that 110.26 is pretty vague. All it says is "equipment operating at 600 volts, nominal, or less to ground and likely to require examination, adjustment, servicing, or maintenance while energized". It doesn't say disconnects, panelboards, switchboards, etc. Though those all typically are enforced with this clearance, other "equipment may or may not normally be considered to meed this requirement. Taking voltage and current readings is part of examination, servicing or maintenance and certainly can be performed in junction boxes.
Many places don't require such clearances in front of non fused disconnects but do require it if fused. Now take a typical non working air conditioning unit - owner calls HVAC guy out - he does some checking - even tests for voltage in that non fused disconnect before telling owner no power at disconnect - call an electrician. Should that require clearance or not? It very well may have had voltage tested more often then the main panel ever has in some cases.
- Location
- Illinois
- Occupation
- retired electrician
The language in 110.26 is very subjective. I always require that equipment disconnects have the required working clearance as it is very likely that when the equipment fails, the service tech will check voltage at that disconnect. I don't make a distinction between fused and unfused disconnects.
- Location
- Simi Valley, CA
Thank you! I brought this up in a class and you should have heard the guff I got.
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