convention for power supply routing

L

Laylow

Guest
Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire supplying a
panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of said panel,
switch, or component? And also that the power leaving any device or
panel should come out the bottom? Is this an actual convention? Are
there exceptions or workarounds?

Thanks,
laylow
 
Laylow writes:

Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire supplying a
panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of said panel,
switch, or component?
Click to expand...
Electricity doesn't flow uphill.

Wait ... No, I'm confusing it with water.
 
"Laylow" <laylow@antisocial.com> wrote in message
news:b39acf72.0407270754.eee5a48@posting.google.com...
Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire
supplying a
panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of
said panel,
switch, or component? And also that the power leaving any
device or
panel should come out the bottom? Is this an actual
convention? Are
there exceptions or workarounds?

Thanks,
laylow
Click to expand...
No, don 't think so. You have to check with your local code
enforcement anyway, so ask them while you're at it.

<feeling facetious>
I'll bet you'll be back later too, asking whether the third
prong on a 3-wire outle goes on top or on the bottom <g>.
When you get that one answered, then think about which way
it goes if it's mounted horizontally.
</feeling facetious>

There IS something somewhere though, union I think, or maybe
industrial, that says input's always on top, output's on the
bottom. Perhaps that's where the question comes from? It
is a convention, but in new construction it's pretty easy to
do stuff anyway they want to for convention. So, it IS
possible a local code calls for it but I've never heard it
mentioned.

Pop
 
In sci.engr.electrical.compliance Laylow <laylow@antisocial.com> wrote:

| Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire supplying a
| panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of said panel,
| switch, or component? And also that the power leaving any device or
| panel should come out the bottom? Is this an actual convention? Are
| there exceptions or workarounds?

Power coming it at the bottom and leaving from everywhich direction is
actually rather common. The Square-D I-Line series commercial breaker
panels are designed with this assumption.

One restriction to deal with is the NEC requirement that when a switch
or breaker handle operates in a vertical orientation, then UP must be
ON (closed) and DOWN must be OFF (open). Horizontal can go either way.
if you have a panel with any breakers (typically main) operating in the
vertical orientation, and want to invert their direction, you need to
change the affected breakers so they retain the correct direction. That
could mean reversing the mounting of a breaker inside and maybe feeding
it backwards.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Phil Howard KA9WGN | http://linuxhomepage.com/ http://ham.org/ |
| (first name) at ipal.net | http://phil.ipal.org/ http://ka9wgn.ham.org/ |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
"Laylow" <laylow@antisocial.com> wrote in message
news:b39acf72.0407270754.eee5a48@posting.google.com...
Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire supplying a
panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of said panel,
switch, or component? And also that the power leaving any device or
panel should come out the bottom? Is this an actual convention? Are
there exceptions or workarounds?

Thanks,
laylow
Click to expand...
Most sparkies follow what you have mentioned. There are acceptations to
every practice.
The biggest problem with bottom feeding some switches is that when open the
knives are hot. Pretty cool at 5 kv, yep I found one of these at a
university.
There are machines where this practice is not followed.

There are bottom fed circuit breaker panels by every manufacture.

Be more specific about your application or talk to the AHJ
 
Lotta words....no useful information.

"Pop Rivet" <nobody@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:EP6dnX_BrN9aEpvcRVn-jA@usadatanet.net...
"Laylow" <laylow@antisocial.com> wrote in message
news:b39acf72.0407270754.eee5a48@posting.google.com...
Is there anything in the NEC that says that the wire
supplying a
panel, switch, or component should come in to the top of
said panel,
switch, or component? And also that the power leaving any
device or
panel should come out the bottom? Is this an actual
convention? Are
there exceptions or workarounds?

Thanks,
laylow

No, don 't think so. You have to check with your local code
enforcement anyway, so ask them while you're at it.

feeling facetious
I'll bet you'll be back later too, asking whether the third
prong on a 3-wire outle goes on top or on the bottom <g>.
When you get that one answered, then think about which way
it goes if it's mounted horizontally.
/feeling facetious

There IS something somewhere though, union I think, or maybe
industrial, that says input's always on top, output's on the
bottom. Perhaps that's where the question comes from? It
is a convention, but in new construction it's pretty easy to
do stuff anyway they want to for convention. So, it IS
possible a local code calls for it but I've never heard it
mentioned.

Pop
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Welcome to EDABoard.com

Sponsor

Back
Top