Common Keying on Switchboard Locks?

[Paulusgnome]

Hi All.

My employer is a New Zealand-based distributor of electrical switchboards and accessories. A question arose recently, and I would be interested to see if our normal practice is also normal elsewhere.
We sell lots of switchboards with security locks. Normal practice here is that switchboard locks are common-keyed, so that in any one installation one key will open all switchboards. I presume that this is at least partly a safety issue, although convenience is also a factor.

So my question is : are common-keyed switchboard locks normal practice in other countries?

Thanks
Paulus

 

[jbartos]

Suggestion: I see that manufacturers offer provisions for about three padlocks at various electrical power hardware, e.g. circuit breakers, disconnect switches, etc. Three padlocks seem to be an inexpensive and a relatively safe solution.

 

[pablo02]

I have always seen and always used "keyed-alike" locks for such installations (I live in USA) -- in the field, we never knew ahead of time which technician, meterman, or substaion member whould be assigned to work on the equipment, and during storms, any number of people had to have access to the equipment also --

Our employees were assigned keys -- they knew that a particular key opened any of the equipment they worked on... they didn't have to hunt through a key ring to find the right key (the convenience and safety aspects you alluded to)..

We did deviate from the single key in one aspect: power plant people had a separate "keyed-alike" system... this prevented power plant people from accessing substations and vice versa... (certain supervisors and managers were issued both keys)...

I suspect this is a general industry practice (it also keeps the mfg's costs down) although I suspect a customer could request a different keying scheme (at an additional cost?)...

 

[dpc]

We generally specify "keyed-alike" for all common types of equipment. In practice, the owner will often go through and change out all of the lock cylinders anyway.

In some cases, the owner would provide exact keying requirements prior to manufacturing, but this is unusual.

 

[simtricity]

HI PAULUSGNOME.
IT IS COMMON PRACTICE TO PROVIDE KEYS ALIKE FOR SITE SWITCH BOARDS ON LARGE SITES WITH LARGE NUMBER OF MAINTENANCE STAFF,BUT THIS IS ONLY TO OPEN THE FRONT COVER AND EXPOSE THE CIRCUIT BREAKERS.ANY WORK CARRIED OUT ON THE BOARD OR EXTERNAL CIRCUITS SHOULD BE CONTROLLED BY THE CUSTOMER SAFE WORKING PRACTICES IE (ELECTRICAL PERMIT SCHEMES)AND SAFETY LOCKS.I WOULD EXPECT A SWITCHBOARD MANUFACTURER TO PROVIDE A MECHANICAL MECHANISM TO ENABLE INDIVIDUAL MCB'S TO BE LOCKED OFF BY CUTOMERS PADLOCKS.