Where breakers and fuses may be located
Breakers and fuses must be readily accessible, with the handle no higher than 6 ft 7 in. They may not be in bathrooms, clothes closets, over stairway steps or where exposed to physical damage.
What the code requires
Circuit breakers and fused switches must be readily accessible. The center of the handle grip, at its highest position, may be no more than 6 ft 7 in. (2.0 m) above the floor or working platform. Busways, supplementary devices, devices covered by 225.40 and 230.92, and devices next to the equipment they supply (where access by portable means is allowed) may depart from that limit.
Each occupant must have ready access to the overcurrent devices serving their space, with building-management exceptions for multi-occupancy buildings, guest rooms and dorms.
Overcurrent devices may not be exposed to physical damage, near easily ignitible material such as in clothes closets, or over the steps of a stairway. Other than supplementary devices, they may not be in bathrooms, showering facilities, or locker rooms with showers.
On the job
- A subpanel in a bathroom, including a commercial restroom, is a correction under the 2023 code.
- A panel in a clothes closet.
- A handle above 6 ft 7 in., for example a panel mounted high over a washer.
- An exception proposed in the 2026 NEC revision cycle, for adding breakers to existing bathroom panels, has not been adopted in California.
Exceptions that matter
- Inside listed industrial control panels, hazardous-location enclosures or environmental enclosures, a tool may be needed for access, but with the enclosure open the devices must still meet the accessibility and height rule.
What changed in 2023
The 2023 code extended the bathroom ban to showering facilities and locker rooms with showers, worded so it covers bathrooms in any occupancy, rewrote the tool-access exception to name hazardous-location and environmental enclosures, adding a requirement that they meet the height rule when judged open, and added dormitory sleeping rooms to the building-management allowance for branch-circuit devices.
Related sections
- NEC 110.26
- NEC 230.70: Where the main service disconnect must go
- NEC 240.10
- NEC 404.8: Switch accessibility and mounting height
Where this comes from
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