On Dec 22, 7:36*am, "RBM" wrote:
"Jennifer Eden" wrote in message

...
On Dec 21, 10:32 pm, Kevin Ricks wrote:





Wayne Whitney wrote:
On 2008-12-21, Kevin Ricks wrote:

In my area sub-panel disconnects are required.

That seems odd--shutting off the main breaker in a subpanel doesn't
render it safe to work on, as the incoming feeder conductors are still
energized. To deenergize the panel, you have to kill the feeder itself.

I was told the local inspector would require the disconnects where there
are 2 columns of breakers in the panel? With one column you can turn
everything off in one sweeping hand motion...with 2 columns your all
confused in a panic emergency ..... It was just a store employee that
said that... , but it may be that the NEC would require disconnect
anyway in my situation. It's an 8 slot sub in a detached shop building.
I believe NEC requires disconnects for subs in detached buildings.
Actually, I am not sure if my shop is classified as attached or
detached? It's separated from the house by a breezeway but attached at
the roof. I treated it as detached.

OR what I did was to back feed the sub-panel through a standard
breaker (60A in my case). Much cheaper than the main breaker kit,
but it uses up 2 slots in the sub-panel.

This configuration requires an additional holddown bracket on the
backfed breaker.

Thanks I didn't know that.
Kevin

Cheers, Wayne- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Hi,

This is a very valuable discussion for me, I was wondering if you
could define some of the terms that you were using, since I am still
at the point where I know hot/neutral/ground/breaker/panel/subpanel/
main breaker. What a

Disconnect - switch or breaker to turn off electricity
Lug - connector in panel to attach wires
Main Lugs *lugs where the wires feeding the panel are attached
Holddown Bracket - *bracket that holds a main circuit breaker to the panel
Back feed - Back feed circuit breaker *connecting the main panel wires to a
circuit breaker plugged into the panel, as opposed to attaching to an
installed main circuit breaker , or lugs
Main breaker KIT - some panels that come with lugs only, can be furnished
with main breaker kits. You can purchase a panel either way

Thank you in advance!

Aaron- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thank you.

So - what are the pros and cons and having a main breaker on the
subpanel. (I noticed that it is a little more expensive to have the
breaker, but not enough to affect my decision.)

Thank you in advance.