Is there an enclosure that can be installed around the panel to protect it from igniting the clothes, etc? It seems like a metal cover type enclosure that would still allow access would be out there? Just looking for a workaround to having to relocate it. I did a google search and all I came up with was a discussion in EC mag as to why they are not allowed there.
Have you considered work space requirements?
No! .
Yes, there are but they seem to be very difficult to find now. The home improvement stores here… Home Depot, Dixieland, and Lowes… used to stock them but I haven’t seen them in the past couple of years.
As technology has invaded our homes, closet panels, which were usually 60A or 75A, have been upgraded and moved out of closets.
I suggest it to Clients in two of my neighborhoods where closet panels are common, but even in those two neighborhoods, I’m finding fewer and fewer of them, especially since, during the recession, people tended to renovate instead of move.
Some have actually followed my recommendation and had them purchased and installed. Imagine that.
I used to have a picture of one but I can’t find it right now. I might have lost it in the Great Hard Drive Crash of August 2005.
FYI- it’s the Overcurrent devices in the closet that presents the problem…not the “panel” itself. If you notice 240.24(E) says “such as in clothes closets” so proximity is everything.
Clothes Closets are simply a location that typically contains easily ignitable material…remove the material and rods, rename the closet and you no longer have easily ignitable material …just sayin.
The best part about your job is that the solution is not your problem.
You can divide the closet so you have clothes on the other side. The divider has to be three feet from the panel. At least that works here.
I have a ton of homes in my area all built in the early to mid 70’s all with FP panels and all in bedroom closets???
that’s the way those okie’s roll…