This is new town house construction near me where I recently did several rental inspections.
Disconnect on the front of the unit (left of porch light).
Disconnect in main panel (in garage):
New construction requires an EMERGENCY Disconnect IN ADDITION TO the primary Main Disconnect.
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Do you have a picture of this cabinet with the dead front off?
they like it outside for fire department and first responder use is my understanding…beats trying to find and pull a meter on multi family units…
The 2020 NEC requires the emergency disconnect. You can also make it the service disconnect if you so choose. I see no reason to have two disconnects but it is permitted when properly labeled.
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No, first time I’ve seen it. The inspection I was doing didn’t give me the opportunity to pull the dead front. Would of been interesting to see how the grounding was done.
I’ve done several 11 month inspections on some homes close by and they didn’t have the emergency disconnect., so maybe maryland just adopted it or it’s only required for townhomes?
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The requirement applies to one and two family dwelling units. {230.85}
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230.85 Emergency Disconnects. For one- and two-family dwelling
units, all service conductors shall terminate in disconnecting
means having a short-circuit current rating equal to or
greater than the available fault current, installed in a readily
accessible outdoor location. If more than one disconnect is
provided, they shall be grouped. Each disconnect shall be one
of the following:
(1) Service disconnects marked as follows:
EMERGENCY DISCONNECT,
SERVICE DISCONNECT
(2) Meter disconnects installed per 230.82(3) and marked as
follows:
EMERGENCY DISCONNECT,
METER DISCONNECT,
NOTSERVICE EQUIPMENT
(3) Other listed disconnect switches or circuit breakers on
the supply side of each service disconnect that are suitable
for use as service equipment and marked as follows:
EMERGENCY DISCONNECT,
NOTSERVICE EQUIPMENT
Markings shall comply with 110.21(B).
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Rob
We are still on the 17 NEC so I haven’t looked at the 2020. Question. Two family. So, I could put 2 emergency disconnects outside, go under the slab to each main panel and run then in 3-wire. That didn’t change? Sounds like is just an inline switch to me.
Robert, I think I have asked you this before but can’t seem to find the post. When there is an exterior disconnect marked as the emergency disconnect, does that mean everything after is a sub-panel?
I seem to remember you saying that the emergency disconnect may not always be considered the “first point of disconnect” in some situations, as it applies to how to treat the downstream panels.
Yes you can think of it as an inline switch and run only a 3-wire.
So you have two options, one is just put a switch outside and wire the interior panel like a normal service with the service disconnect, main bonding jumper and GEC(s) terminating there. Or you can make the outside disconnect the service disconnect and wire the interior panel as a sub-panel. With the first option you would only need 3-wires between the EM disconnect and the service just like in the photo in the OP. Regardless of which method you choose you need to follow the labeling requirements in 230.85.
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