Technical Corner For the article this month we will take a look at some scenarios where it’s acceptable to put GFI protection within the receptacle and other times it must be installed as part of the circuit breaker within a panel board. In some situations, you can put the GFI device right in the receptacle and other situations may require GFI protection from the circuit breaker within the panel. But regardless, the ground fault devices need to be installed in a readily accessible area per NEC 210.8. Readily Accessible Definition from NEC Section 100: “Capable of being reached quickly for operation, renewal, or inspections without requiring those to whom ready access is requisite to take actions such as to use tools (other than keys), to climb over or under, to remove obstacles, or to resort to portable ladders, and so forth.” So, what about a commercial kitchen refrigerator GFI receptacle installed directly behind the refrigerator, is it readily accessible? The answer is NO. Commercial kitchen refrigerators can be rather large obstacles, even if the refrigerator is on wheels. Interesting to add that section 422.5 (A) includes GFI protection for vending machines and drinking water coolers. These two may offer non-readily accessible scenarios. Many drinking water coolers (typical drinking fountain) and vending machines are cord and plug connected devices and would be tempting to just put a GFI receptacle within the water cooler cabinetry or behind the vending machine. However, this receptacle with GFI protection would not be readily accessible as you would need tools to take the cover off the drinking water cooler. For the vending machine scenario, the vending machine itself is an obstacle and would have to be removed to get to the GFI receptacle, even if on wheels similar to the commercial kitchen refrigerator. Therefore again, not readily accessible. These scenarios would require the GFI protection to be located within the circuit breaker feeding the appliances. Note, the keys required to get into a panel board as well as the keys to get into an electrical room do not disqualify the GFI breakers from being readily accessible. Code references courtesy of NEC 2017 Code version Hopefully this article finds you well and can be used as a reference for your project needs. If anyone would like to contribute to the Rochester Engineer publication and add an article or would like to request information on a specific topic (not limited to electrical) just email me at beliasz@bergmannpc.com. As always, any comments are appreciated…! Thank you for reading. Brett Eliasz, P.E., LEED AP BD+C , RES Director
8 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER APRIL 2021
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