Classified location?

[bugzapper]

This week I'm working at a facility that has 13,200v, 4160v, and 480v switchgear (and associated xfmr's) in electrical rooms on one end of a very large building (>1m ft2). Their paint line is right on the other side of the wall from the electrical rooms, and the fumes in the electrical rooms hit me like a truck as soon as I enter. I only carry 70E with me on the road, not the NEC, but shouldn't this be either a classified location or a place to seal the doors that enter the plant or something? There are other doors that exit outside.

Matthew

 

[rbalex]

It is possible that a small part of the electrical room would be classified under Art 516 and/or it source document NFPA 33; however it's difficult to say for sure without detailed layouts of the installation.

The simple ability to smell the fumes is pretty much irrelevant. Most ignitable materials that can be detected by smell can be sensed well below their lower flammable limit (LFL). Our sniffers aren?t nearly as good as most animals but we still can detect smells in the parts per million (ppm) range whereas LFLs are in the parts per hundred range (ppc).

 

[bugzapper]

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[weressl]

It is possible that a small part of the electrical room would be classified under Art 516 and/or it source document NFPA 33; however it's difficult to say for sure without detailed layouts of the installation.

The simple ability to smell the fumes is pretty much irrelevant. Most ignitable materials that can be detected by smell can be sensed well below their lower flammable limit (LFL). Our sniffers aren?t nearly as good as most animals but we still can detect smells in the parts per million (ppm) range whereas LFLs are in the parts per hundred range (ppc).

Couple of thoughts:

• it could be water based or low VOC paint
• even though it may not need to be classified, because it never reaches the LEL, they could produce cummulative deterioration on the insulation.