Electrical Panel Clearances
Electrical Panel Clearances
(OP)
I've recently been asked to document the specific regulations concerning temporary storage of items in front of electrical panels. I realize that by NEC 2005 Article 110.26 Table 110.26(A)(1), that our 480 VAC control cabinet must have a minimum of 42" of working space in front of it. The problem I have is that this seems very vague with respect to closed cabinets. OSHA regulations seem to blur the NEC requirements to mean that the cabinet has to be "easily accessible." Does this mean that temporary storage, such as that on a cart, is acceptable?
Is there a specific NFPA, OSHA or even NEC regulation that covers access to control cabinets, even when the item being stored in front is readily moved?
Thanks for the help in advance!...
Is there a specific NFPA, OSHA or even NEC regulation that covers access to control cabinets, even when the item being stored in front is readily moved?
Thanks for the help in advance!...






RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
Storage is storage - on a cart, in a carton, etc.
The standard practice is to paint the required clearance in yellow on the floor. Nothing goes in that space and you can walk to it.
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
Thanks
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
If the panel is close I guess you could assume it doen't need any clearance.
The purpose of the code seems intuitively obvious to me. Something happens ( some light go out, a water heater pops a circuit breaker etc) an electrican goes down and opens the panel to see what happened. But wait he can't, he's got to move a bunch of crap. What if it's an arcing fault feeding a fire? What if it's someone caught in a machine, or someone with a live wire laying on them etc. It could also be the person opening the panel if they decide in am emergency to open the panel with only 12 or so inches of clearance.
In short the question of open vs closed clearance is to dumb to get an answer in writing, a laugh is a good probability.
If your management won't accept the fact that the clearance is open or shut, write a letter to them clearly stating what is needed, that you strongly object and that you are requesting an outside review by sending a copy of the letter to the local AHJ. If you get fired it may be a good career move.
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
respectfully
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
"If your management won't accept the fact that the clearance is open or shut, write a letter to them clearly stating what is needed, that you strongly object and that you are requesting an outside review by sending a copy of the letter to the local AHJ. If you get fired it may be a good career move. "
Believe me, I've thought the same thing on E-stop and other safety requirements recently... It's rather hard to cope in an environment where there's low turnover, and the average employee has 30 years experience within the same company (and likely the only company they've ever worked for)... 1970s logic for safety is commonplace... It's going to take a long time getting used to this culture vs. my previous workplaces...
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
So stop playing (At least here). Tell the production group they are in charge of production and your in charge of electrical stuff. Do you need a cahones transplant? If your going to let yourself be pushed around then the future is going to be hell. You have the code, common sense, opions from this group, your own training and you can get a local AHJ to back you up. If thats not enough consider a career in investment banking or something.
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
There's nothing to be gained from parsing the NEC looking for inconsistencies and loopholes. There are plenty to be found, but that is why the final interpretation is left to the local inspector.
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
Also note that the space must be kept clear even when no work is being performed. My "as worked" statement is only for figuring out which column to enter the table with.
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
I appreciate your *constructive* criticism... The truth is, we're trying to build a case to take to plant management about this issue, and with several people already telling the violating party that they're doing something wrong to no avail, I came here to get a reference to an actual code... I have the cahones, no problem, but it does little good in an environment where production is everything...
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
RE: Electrical Panel Clearances
How about this tactic;
From the sounds of it, they are not going to be able to accurately interpret the complexities of NFPA 70E (Arc Flash Safety), which not only can be interpreted to require up to 48" clearance on 480V gear, but also require a label on the outside of the box saying that anyone coming near must be dressed in a specific matter (PPE requirements) blah blah blah. I'm not saying here that this piece of equipment will require all that much, in fact is probably won't, but the complexities of Article 409 are too much even for some experienced engineers, let alone "non-technical types" with their heads up their ...
So tell them that as long as the person pushing that cart into the room or going in to remove it will need to wear a long sleeve cotton shirt, cotton underwear and fire resistant pants, they can do whatever they think is acceptable. Then show them an NFPA70E sticker example like this:
By the way, if it helps, NFPA 70E rules are very clear about whether the box is open or closed and will require at least 3'6" of clearance from any exposed live parts (implying Open) but adds "approach boundary" and "restricted space" requirements as well. Again, this applies to exposed live electrical equipment, but you can possibly exploit their likely ignorance or confusion by overloading them with this kind of info. For sure, there are scam artists out there now who are capitalizing on this to extract money from the uninformed, all you want is for them to not be stupid about storing stuff too close to electrical cabinets.
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RE: Electrical Panel Clearances