electrical room protection
electrical room protection
(OP)
Dear all,
I've found similar questions but not the exact answer. I have 3 electrical rooms with only circuit breakers, UPS and panels inside. According to NFPA 13@s below statement, I don't need to put any sprinkler or protection system inside. Now my question is for the third item. Is that talking about the room or the panels; as the room itself has 2 hours protection but the panels don't have that. Another question is; I've installed CO2 extinguishing system inside the room but because it is dangerous, the owner wants to cancel that. Could anyone tell me how dangerous it is? In the light of these shall I change the protection system or shall I cancel it completely?
8.15.10 Electrical Equipment.
8.15.10.1 Unless the requirements of 8.15.10.3 are met, sprinkler
protection shall be required in electrical equipment rooms.
8.15.10.3 Sprinklers shall not be required in electrical equipment
rooms where all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The room is dedicated to electrical equipment only.
(2) Only dry-type electrical equipment is used.
(3) Equipment is installed in a 2-hour fire-rated enclosure
including protection for penetrations.
(4) No combustible storage is permitted
I've found similar questions but not the exact answer. I have 3 electrical rooms with only circuit breakers, UPS and panels inside. According to NFPA 13@s below statement, I don't need to put any sprinkler or protection system inside. Now my question is for the third item. Is that talking about the room or the panels; as the room itself has 2 hours protection but the panels don't have that. Another question is; I've installed CO2 extinguishing system inside the room but because it is dangerous, the owner wants to cancel that. Could anyone tell me how dangerous it is? In the light of these shall I change the protection system or shall I cancel it completely?
8.15.10 Electrical Equipment.
8.15.10.1 Unless the requirements of 8.15.10.3 are met, sprinkler
protection shall be required in electrical equipment rooms.
8.15.10.3 Sprinklers shall not be required in electrical equipment
rooms where all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The room is dedicated to electrical equipment only.
(2) Only dry-type electrical equipment is used.
(3) Equipment is installed in a 2-hour fire-rated enclosure
including protection for penetrations.
(4) No combustible storage is permitted





RE: electrical room protection
Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and in a small room, could build up to levels which do not support respiration fairly quickly. There are other clean agent types which are not as dangerous. They extinguish fires without lowering the concentration of breathable oxygen below allowable levels.
One is the Ansul "Sapphire" system which is used a lot in data rooms in that it cools and "chokes" the fire, but does not short out the electrical equipment.
If you use water, I would suggest a sidewall sprinkler, not located over equipment, and place a guard over the sprinkler to prevent accidental contact with the sprinkler.
RE: electrical room protection
RE: electrical room protection
Electrical panels burn, once they burn those circuits are down anyway.
The exception is the room enclosure has to be two hour rated with any penetrations seals properly, the equipment in side does not have to carry a fire rating
RE: electrical room protection
RE: electrical room protection
RE: electrical room protection
RE: electrical room protection
- Is it really 2hr fire rated? (ok with doors, windows, HVAC, ducts, etc.).
- The penetrations protection shall be a system, it involves the wall, the hole, the penetrating objects and the firestopping material, not only the fire stopping material.
- The room is quite large and I supose the quantity of pannels is big, it may economically deserve a good gas flooding extinguishnig system. CO2 is not dangerous depending if it has a propper NFPA 12 design and 1st class contractor. Other systems can be dangerous too if not well designed. But the decision on the type of system has to consider lots of funtional aspects, and architectural details of the room (elevated floor, type of ceiling, roof, walls, volumes, tightness, etc.).
- If the building has an obvious sprinkler requirement (eg. big occupancy + high rise), it may be better to sprinkler and remember the gas system is not included in that 8.15.10.3.
How dangerous CO2 is?, it is not only a techical or code issue, NFPA12 code includes lots of security, unfortunately it depends a lot on the criteria around it where you live.
Arquitecturally consider that CO2 is heavier than air and goes down, incidents I heard of, deal with the lowers spaces where the CO2 can be trapped out of the obviously protected and inmediate warning area and not properlly vented. And depens a lots of the users/occupancy profiles. So some places present more risk than others.