Guys, what is the threshold (if any) for reporting that there is too little room left for expansion in the service panel?
Obviously, if it’s full to the brim with breakers, with no spaces left, I would report that, along with any violations such as tandem breakers in a panel that does not allow for those.
But if there **is **room, how few empty spaces are too few, say on a 40-slot panel? Two? Four?
I realize that NEC is probably silent on this, but should this be reported as any sort of deficiency?
You’re correct that the NEC doesn’t care if the panel is full so is it really an deficiency issue?
I would never report a “full” panel as deficient. I’ve been in my current residence for nearly 10 years. My panel has no room for additional breakers, but I’ve never had (nor do I anticipate ever having) a need for additional circuits.
Thank you, gents.
I don’t want to go into too many what-ifs, because the number of possible scenarios is infinite, but a situation that I had in mind was pretty specific: there **is **a clear need for at least one more circuit; the basement needs a sump pump due to signs of prior flooding, and there is no room in the service panel.
The surprise that the home buyer is going to face when the panel is full, is that now they have to shell out for a subpanel or a bigger panel altogether.
Would you report it under *those *circumstances?
If you know that loads will be added and cannot due to a full panel then a mention in the report would be a benefit for the buyer (as a buyer I would want to know that). In this scenario a sump could probably be added to an existing circuit so you’re back to where you started without a deficiency.
IMO using the word deficiency has a different meaning than noting that your client cannot do something in the future because the panel is full.
I still wouldn’t write it up. Sump pumps don’t fix anything.
I think you could be setting yourself up for trouble. If you are going to write the lack of possible expansion in the panel because of one scenario, you would most likely have to write up all the different reasons why one would want the extra room (as you said, the list infinite). Then you’d have to extrapolate that to every other system in the house to keep the consistency.
As other’s mentioned, calling out a full panel is not a deficiency. Trying to anticipate what the buyers will do, goes way beyond the scope of your inspection and is impossible.
Isn’t a full panel when the load exceeds the supply, not the number of breakers used?