Pull Box Question

[Rickmar]

For years when we relocate a residential electrical panel from one place to another, we would remove the old panel and install a 12 x 12 x 4 or 6 inch pull box to make up all the splices to the cable extending wires that would go to the new panel. We would use romex from the pull box to the new panel location. This way we don't have to derate anything as compared if we would to use a conduit from pull box to new panel. I don't think there is anything in the code book to tell us how many wires can we splice together in a particular size pull box. The box fill section does not go that large. The pull box section only talks about pipes in and out with large cables. Am I missing something or is this something we do that there is no direct code for?

Heck I have been to homes where I have seen where someone took the guts out of the old panel and made up all the splices in there.

Thanks for your help,

Rick

 

[augie47]

314.6 would apply to the j box for all conductors #6 and smaller, but in the case of your 12 x 12x 4 you are talking about a couple of hundred 12's or 10's.
It has been common in this area for folks to use the old panel cutout box for performing the task your describe. There is occasionally a discussion concerning using the old cut out box as a j box but I've seldom seen it not accepted.

 

[infinity]

If you use the 12X12X6 with the installation that you've described it would be nearly impossible to exceed the code limit for the number of conductors within the box. As Augie stated that box can literally hold hundreds of conductors.

Box- 12*12*6 ≈ 864 cu in's

864/2.25 cu in/#12 conductor = 384-#12 conductors

 

[Fulthrotl]

For years when we relocate a residential electrical panel from one place to another, we would remove the old panel and install a 12 x 12 x 4 or 6 inch pull box to make up all the splices to the cable extending wires that would go to the new panel. We would use romex from the pull box to the new panel location. This way we don't have to derate anything as compared if we would to use a conduit from pull box to new panel. I don't think there is anything in the code book to tell us how many wires can we splice together in a particular size pull box. The box fill section does not go that large. The pull box section only talks about pipes in and out with large cables. Am I missing something or is this something we do that there is no direct code for?

Heck I have been to homes where I have seen where someone took the guts out of the old panel and made up all the splices in there.

Thanks for your help,

Rick

yep. then i make a stainless steel cover to fit over the old can,
so it's a nice tidy installation. use a conduit to the new panel,
and derate as appropriate.

i've never had it rejected by an inspector. most consider it a clean
install, and move on.

but i haven't done it in jersey.... yet.

 

[ActionDave]

....Heck I have been to homes where I have seen where someone took the guts out of the old panel and made up all the splices in there.

Thanks for your help,

Rick

Guilty.

 

[Rickmar]

Thanks for your answers. Now I would like to throw a possible monkey wrench out there. In the 2014 code book which does not go into effect for NJ until March 2016 Article 210.12B Branch circuit extensions or modifications. Would it be considered a modification by extending branch circuit wires from an old panel location via my pull box splice box to a new panel location more than 6 feet away? That would mean arc fault breakers in my new panel to feed all the existing branch circuits in the rooms that the code states.

A Branch circuit extension would be to replace an existing receptacle with an arc fault receptacle and feed through to a new receptacle at another location. Am I extending branch circuits but instead of from a receptacle outward to a new receptacle, I am actually going in reverse from the branch circuit splice in my pull box where the old electrical panel was back to a new panel location?
What exactly is a modification? Is this for the AHJ to determine this or does anybody know.
Am I modifying by relocating a panel more than six feet away?

Thanks again in advance,

Rick

 

[GoldDigger]

I think you are triggering the requirement. One justification for the exception was to allow a panel to be relocated a few feet. Beyond that you are in trouble.