Equipment Disconnect Location

Specific Inspection Topics Electrical Inspections
1

Ok…what do the officials out there say about the equipment disconnect being “behind” the equipment out of reach of the technician? Would be at least a 4ft reach for the service tech. Garage attic access is bottom left corner of first photo out of view and is just a hole. No solid floor on this side. Attic stairs are in the hallway (top right of 1st pic in the background) with a solid floor all the way to the unit. 2nd picture is from other side of unit accessed from the master closet.

Any particular code section to quote since this is a 2014 home?

2

Line of sight and accessible. It appears to be between the hatch (primary access) and the equipment, so the tech would access it on his way to the equipment. Non-issue, unless there is more you aren’t telling or showing us.

3

Here is a few more details:

-the primary access is in the master closet with attic stairs and a platform all the way to the equipment. No disconnect within reach on this side.

-the disconnect is over 4ft behind the unit near the other attic access in the garage which has 12ft ceilings and no pull down ladder and no floor from the hatch opening to the equipment

I say either provide a solid floor to the unit on the garage side or relocate the disconnect to be near the equipment. The latter makes more sense to me since it would about $8 in materials.

My question is if there is any print material to support my opinion?

4

IRC requirements

5

According to the NEC the disconnect location is fine.

6

Just to give you an idea of how far a disconnect can be, one of the warehouses I work at has a flat roof with swamp coolers. The first one you reach is about 120’ away from a row of disconnects that are clearly labeled and easy to see for all the swamp coolers on the roof. Its a bit of a walk to turn it off, but disconnects are not installed with a lazy maintenance guy in mind.

7

Do not confuse these guys with Commercial. They have enough trouble with Residential. Max. Residential is 50 feet line of sight (depending)!

8

thx! I was looking for max distance (not too diligently I admit), IRC? NEC? IBC?

9

The most common requirement in the NEC is “within sight”. Using the Article 100 definition:

In Sight From (Within Sight From, Within Sight).
Where this Code specifies that one equipment shall be “in
sight from,” “within sight from,” or “within sight of,” and
so forth, another equipment, the specified equipment is to be
visible and not more than 15 m (50 ft) distant from the other.