ECN Forum Forums Code Related Discussion NEC & other Code issues 2014: Revisit "Six Throws?"

Reno:

Your description sounds like someone had a different interpretation of 'nearest the point of entry'.

Common installations over here is an exterior meter pan with service feeder going into a MCB panel. Either 'back-to-back' or a short straight line run down into the basement. Exterior mains are installed when the ''short straight line' cannot happen.

Kinda on the same page....
Had a aquaintance years back that was hanging pictures (art) for his wife, using a 1/4" electric drill & molly type anchors. He drilled into the adjoining townhouse's SER.....200 amp. Blew his $15 drill to hell, gave him flash burns, and about $2k in repairs. The SER had a 200 amp MCB at the meter, never tripped.

BTW, I feel your pain with the 'always hot' old panels; been there, done that.

Reno, I still ask, so what if there is a disconnect in the panel if you drill a hole in the SE cable on the line side?

John, I agree that there should be a minimal amount of unprotected SE in the house but it seems a lot of AHJs will allow up to FIVE FEET. The SE in my kid's house is at least that long and buried in the wall between the kitchen and pantry. Two chances for that drill incident you are talking about (both sides of the wall).
I would never have approved that. I haven't opened up the wall but I really hope/wish it is in RMC. In real life, it will either be a cable or RNC.

Greg, you're right that it does not address a fault to the feed ... but a breaker at the panel at least lets you kill the busses.

I like the idea of the single disconnect but CMP4 has not embraced it. When they removed the "Lighting and appliance board" rule it even got a little looser.

If you want to kill the busses to the panel, turn off all the breakers and then pull the meter.

Sure, I can pull the meter .... after having the PoCo come out -for a fee and at their convenience - to remove the hefty tamper-resistant seal.

"Near." There's the key. Up the wall, across the ceiling, down the hall, and back into the wall is not 'near.'

One nice thing about putting the panel into the side wall of a closet: no one hangs pictures there

I've seen many instances of long runs of unfused/protected SE cable between the meter and panel in North Carolina, but the cable has always been through crawlspaces. These installations also dated as far back as the early 1950's. I can't imagine that these would fly by today's standards.