Code Applied by the app elec.disconnect.within-sight
Disconnect within sight of the unit
Air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment gets a disconnect within sight of it and readily reached, so the rooftop unit's circuit ends in a disconnect on the roof.
| When | The app uses |
|---|---|
| air-conditioning or refrigerating equipment, the rooftop unit | a disconnect within sight of the unit, readily accessible |
- Source
- NEC · 440.14 · read the public text
- Editions checked
- 2017 · 2020 · 2023
- Used by
- Courses
- Amendments
No state or local amendment to this rule is on file. Not on file means the model code as written — check your jurisdiction.
A model code the authority having jurisdiction adopts.
Whoever services a rooftop unit or a walk-in compressor has to be able to see the switch that kills it. So the code puts a disconnect within sight of the equipment and where it can be reached without a portable ladder or tools: on a rooftop unit, a disconnect on the roof beside it, whatever breaker feeds it from the panel.
On a bid it is a line item the one-line may not draw: the disconnect itself, rated for the unit, the conduit and wire to it and from it, and the roof work to mount it.
What the app does with it
The electrical course teaches it on a card (Chapter 6, Poles), and check-lesson-rules holds the card's numbers to this rule. The app counts a disconnect you mark; it does not ask whether each unit has one.
Verify against your edition
Within sight is a defined term: visible, and not more than 50 ft away. Readily accessible means reached without a portable ladder or tools, and since the 2020 edition a key does not count as a tool. The section's exception for a remote disconnect that can be locked open is for equipment essential to an industrial process, with written safety procedures and qualified service staff, never a restaurant's rooftop unit. Local amendments still govern.
Settled 2026-09-27 by Claude on the owner's delegation, from the dossier's research and the model code text; not checked against a printed book or a local amendment.
Cited by section, not reprinted: the code text belongs to its publisher. Company practice is not a rule here — it lives with your pricing.