Home Security: Breaker Box

[Jer]

In Colorado the power is most generally rear of the lot.

Maybe where you live. All the houses in Northern Colorado I've built or worked on the electrical service is at the front of the lot, street-side. Low voltage like cable and phone are located at the rear of the lot. Fuse panels on the outside of house are a money saving tactic generally used by larger builders who hire people to save them dimes and pennies. There is no city code in the cities in which I've seen it that requires such a placement of the panel.

[Sparky]

There is a good reason. It is called point of entry. You cannot have unprotected conductors entering your home. Now if you mounted a disconnect next to your meter you can move your panel into the house.

[newracer]

My house was just built last year. It has a panel on the side of the garage with the main disconnect and a few spaces for breakers. Inside the garage on another wall is the panel with all the breakers for the house.

[asmo]

I have heard its fun to turn all the breakers off, then JB Weld the box shut... while the 'target' is away at work.

[rbeau30]

I have heard its fun to turn all the breakers off, then JB Weld the box shut... while the 'target' is away at work.

And then set the target's neighbor's car alarm so it goes off all day.

[MarkCO]

There is no code requirement that the breaker box be outside. However, other code requirements, such as FD access to main disconnect, access to meter, enclosure ratings (specifically fire ratings), ratings for conductors in wall cavities etc. make it significantly cheaper to locate the main breaker and sub-panels on the exterior as opposed to the interior. Even on the interior, the main shut-off has to be accessible from the exterior.

We use 2 outlet lights next to the bedrooms that illuminate when the power goes off and our alarm system (including smokes, gas and CO) are on a system not dependent on Xcel, nor the main breaker being on.

[Irving]

Just move into an apartment and let someone else worry about the breaker panels.

[TheGrey]

If mine caught fire, I think I'd want it to be outside.

FWIW, I have two: one inside the laundry room from the original house and one outside for the addition we did. I guess I'm f-ed either way.

It was a catch-22. The reason it caught fire in the first place was because the ground was so dry that the bentonite contracted and pulled the wires tight. The cheap SOBs that built this housing complex didn't leave any extra wire loop to account for soil/clay expansion or contraction, and the wires were pulled tight enough to twist the meter out of place. It touched the aluminum sides of the meter box, and set off a spark that started the wires on fire. Our bedroom window faces the junction box, and I woke up to see the fire before it got into the attic. The fire department said that they had dealt with over a dozen fires that started that way.

[james_bond_007]

There is a good reason. It is called point of entry. You cannot have unprotected conductors entering your home. Now if you mounted a disconnect next to your meter you can move your panel into the house.

If this is an NEC requirement, I'd like to read through it. (Can you point me to the text to which you refer? )

What I remember in the Midwest (not saying Midwest is better..just different) is that the panels were on the inside, in both the garage and house.
The ones I'm familiar with, power came from overhead lines, down conduit to the outside meter.
Conduit went to the boxes or the boxes were "opposite" the meter on the same wall (and connected in the same "hole" from inside to outside).
There were no disconnects next to the meter.

Note: This was a house a group up in...things may be different for new housing.

Further, if the fire dept. needed to disconnect power, they pulled the meter.

Guess there are a lot of ways to skin a cat.

[james_bond_007]

Just move into an apartment and let someone else worry about the breaker panels.

Does not really address the issue...just moves responsibility to someone else.