Good on ya Don! I have often wondered why we cannot have separate compartment panels in the United States. Canada has not suffered complete collapse of it's home building industry because they require it so I'm not willing to accept that we've never done it so it can never work here. Hell I might even be willing to go a step farther and require that the cover be fitted in such a way that you cannot remove it from the cabinet unless the breaker handle is in the off position. All that requires is extended guides at each corner to keep the panel cover from being manipulated free with the breaker still on and a breaker with a handle which is larger at it's tip than it is where it comes through it's slot in the outer cover.
When you look at the Canadian design, the whole top of the panel is reserved for the service conductors and service disconnect, and no branch circuit wiring is permitted. To provide entry space for the branch circuit wiring, they mount the panel horizontally, as they don't have a rule like our rule in 240.81. That rule does not permit us to install the panel horizontally as half of the breakers would operate with the breaker "on" where the handle is in the down position.
The real remedy is at hand however. All future service installs on dwellings will have to have an exterior disconnect once the 2020 edition of the NEC is adopted in your locality. What I foresee is a lot of 3R main breaker enclosures being installed out at the meter with an Main Lug Only panelboard inside. That will be the least cost means of compliance with this mandate for exterior disconnect on all dwellings. A lot more 4 wire SER cable, add on grounding conductor busbars, and similar parts will be sold because the cable or raceway from the main breaker enclosure will now contain a feeder instead of Service Entry Conductors. But somehow I cannot see this as the TEOTWAWKI.
The problem I have with the main breaker being outside, is that there are breakers that have manufacturer's instructions that say they are not suitable where the ambient temperature is below 14°F. In addition, there is a substantial shift in the trip point at the temperature goes down. One brand show that the trip rating goes up 25% when the breaker is in a temperature of 50°C, and goes up even more as the temperature drops. In my area the normal high temperature is below 50°F for about 5 months of the year.
They tell me that it is for Firefighter safety so I should be all for it but if you want to reduce the risks to firefighters as much as is practical you Auto Fire Sprinkler the building. If we were to somehow get an exterior main breaker retrofitted on every house we would not save anywhere near the lives that we would save by giving subsidies for home fire sprinkler installations in existing homes. The firefighters will not have to be in terrible danger when they do the utility control because in almost every case the fire will be extinguished before the firefighters begin to respond to the sprinkler water flow alarm. They would arrive to a building with a cool and non deadly atmosphere and be able to simply walk in and open the Service Disconnecting Means. But just like Canada's separate compartment service connections it is too much like sense.
Yes, fire sprinklers would be a great improvement in life safety and property preservation. We have a local amendment that to the electrical code that says you don't need to install AFCIs if you have a code compliant fire sprinkler system. Our thought was that the deletion of the AFCIs would free up some money to help fund the sprinkler system, but no one has taken advantage of it so far. We added as an amendment when we adopted the 2017 code.
Only about 15% of the dwelling unit fires are related to electrical wiring or equipment, so the AFCI can only provide protection for a small percentage of the fires....the sprinkler system provides protection for 100% of the fires. Fire loss data shows the average damage for dwelling unit fire exceeds $40,000, but where fire sprinklers are installed the average damage is about $2500. The model building codes require fire sprinkler systems in dwelling units, but many areas amend them out whey they adopt the building code. There are about 105 cities in Illinois that require dwelling unit fire sprinkler sytems.
