ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area 15 amp circuit in commercial?

I have been compelled to re-breaker commercial circuits down to 15A when the modular end-use equipment is pre-wired in #14.

Think grocery store cash register checkout assemblies. They're all pre-fabbed.

Isn't romex prohibited in a place of gathering,ie. a church?? I use 15 amp circuits all the time in the gas pump world(although I generally use #12 wire) and I suspect with the price of wire the way it is I'll use more with #14 instead.

I almost done replacing the #14 romex that was put in by a handyman previously.
I'm using #12 MC cable for these church offices. Its been a lot of work, lot of holes cut in the drywall, but it will be correct now.
The fluorescent lights are 277 volt also, which had some 14-3 romex used. All will be #12 MC cable.

Not that 12/2 MC is bad but 14 NM may have been fine.

Church offices are not normally a place of assembly.

Aldav53, I agree with Iwire, IMO you did of alot of unnecessary work.

Roger

iwire,
I realize that and agree, it would have probably been fine. But I called the city and they said no romex in commercial. I told the guy heading the project up, so he said change it.
(I also found some NM wire nut splices, no boxes too, in the attic).

If the office is in the church, what difference does it make if the office is a place of assembly?? One doesn't consider the whole building a place of Assembly?? In this case I have no idea if the office is within the church building or not

No you don't necessarily have to call the entire building a place of assembly.

Only the areas that can hold more than a 100 people and are not separated from that area by firewalls.

It is entirely likely that offices, dressing rooms, bathrooms hallways etc would be separated from the 'place of assembly'.

You can wire it entirely as a place of assembly but that may make your bid extremely high compared to an EC that is not wiring it all as a place of Assembly.

Its not in the place of assembly, the Worship center, but the offices are in the same building that the gym and youth rooms are.

Seperation by a fire wall is the key. I wonder how many old churches have a fire wall between offices and the place of assembly? I'd guess not many at least in my area.