Code Change Summary: New requirements on the travel distance of personnel doors.

For many years the NEC^® has required equipment doors to open at least 90° in Section 110.26(A)(2). This requirement is to make sure the width of the required working space for the equipment is sufficient to perform the intended work in a safe manner. If this 90° measurement is so important, then what about the travel distance of the personnel doors used by the electrician for entry to and egress from the required working space? Shouldn’t they also be able to open to at least 90°?

To understand the general rules provided in Article 110 on entry and egress, it helps to have a close look at both Sections 110.26(C)(2) and110.26(C)(3).

In Section 110.26(C)(2), the NEC^® provides minimum required measurements for the “entrance to” or “egress from” the required working space for “large equipment”. NEC^® Article 110 is silent on minimum egress width or height for anything that does not fall into the “large equipment” category. Furthermore, Section 110.26(C)(2) is only about the required opening size of the entry and egress since it provides no special requirements for any doors that may be installed in the required entrance or egress opening. Afterall, depending on occupancy classification, type of construction, and layout of the building, some electrical equipment rooms may not be required to have an actual door or door frame.

For “large equipment” covered in Section 110.26(C)(2), there must be at least one entrance to and egress from the required working space at least 2 feet wide by 6.5 feet high at each end of the working space unless the conditions in 110.26(C)(2)(a) or (b) apply.

Section 110.26(C)(3) covers the actual personnel doors but only when all of the following occurs:

• There is equipment rated 800 amperes or more.
• The equipment contains overcurrent devices, switching devices, or control devices.
• There are personnel doors installed closer than 25 feet from the nearest edge of the required working space that are intended for a specific purpose such as:
  • Entrance to the working space
  • Egress from the working space

If any of the items mentioned directly above are not present, Section 110.26(C)(3) does not apply.

Prior to the 2023 change to this section, if Section 110.26(C)(3) applied, the doors mentioned in the section had only two requirements:

1. Doors must open in the direction of egress.
2. Doors must be equipped with listed panic hardware or listed fire exit hardware.

For item 1 above, there was no mention of “how far” the doors must be able to open. Technically, based on the 2020 code language in this section, there would be nothing wrong (in the NEC) with an egress door that opens in the direction of travel, even if it could only open just a few inches. For “large equipment”, the egress door would be NEC^® compliant if it only opened far enough to provide a 24-inch egress width as required in Section 110.26(C)(2).

In the 2023 NEC^®, personnel doors covered in Section 110.26(C)(3) must now be able to open at least 90° in the direction of egress.

Similar changes occurred in other NEC^® articles such as 445, 450, 480, and 646.

Below is a preview of the NEC^®. See the actual NEC^® text at NFPA.ORG for the complete code section. Once there, click on their link to free access to the 2023 NEC^® edition of NFPA 70.