Industrial Rack Room?

[JS-Addis]

In the industrial setting, we typicall reffer to an area which is sectioned-off for the DCS (distributed control systems) and SIS (safety instrument systems) systems a rack room. Mainly because this is where multipair instrument cables are "racked" on terminal strips for wiring beneath a raised floor. This area houses this equipment on a raised floor. Would this area fall under article 645?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

No. Article 645 only applies to "information technology equipment" rooms. Industrial control systems are not listed as "information technology equipment". I am not sure there would be any reason you want to use Article 645 for industrial control systems, even if you were permitted to do so. Remember that Article 645 is an optional article. You are not required to use it even when you are installing 'information technology equipment". There is some relief from the normal code rules for an "information technology equipment room", but only if you comply with all of the requirements of 645.4.

 

[JS-Addis]

Is there a specific article that this area would be under, besides the articles in chapters 1-4?

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Is there a specific article that this area would be under, besides the articles in chapters 1-4?

No. It will have to follow the normal code rules, however some of the control circuits would be covered by Article 725.

 

[jdsmith]

If you're asking about article 645, do you have questions about running power under the raised floor and the use of flexible cords?

 

[JS-Addis]

At this point I'm not particularly concerned with wiring beneath the floor. I'm more concerned with nailing down this area. The NEC Handbook on page 1039 (Art 645) describes an ITE room as, "...An ITE room is an enclosed area, with one or more means of entry that contains computer-based business and industrial equipment." This seems to be describing a rack room, and frankly I can't see any physical deference between an ITE room an industrial rack room. I need some help here to see the difference.

 

[ron]

JS,
Even if it were capable of 645 compliance, don't do it. As Don stated it is optional, and the headache of prerequisites are not worth the piddly leniencies offered. Just follow Chapters 1-4, 7 and 8 as needed.

 

[jdsmith]

JS,
Even if it were capable of 645 compliance, don't do it. As Don stated it is optional, and the headache of prerequisites are not worth the piddly leniencies offered. Just follow Chapters 1-4, 7 and 8 as needed.

Agreed - article 645 creates additional failure points in the power system, which is the last thing you need in a rack room.

 

[don_resqcapt19]

At this point I'm not particularly concerned with wiring beneath the floor. I'm more concerned with nailing down this area. The NEC Handbook on page 1039 (Art 645) describes an ITE room as, "...An ITE room is an enclosed area, with one or more means of entry that contains computer-based business and industrial equipment." This seems to be describing a rack room, and frankly I can't see any physical deference between an ITE room an industrial rack room. I need some help here to see the difference.

You can't look at the handbook...you need to look at the code itself. There is nothing in the scope of Article 645 that says it applies to industrial equipment.

645.1 Scope. This article covers equipment, power-supply wiring, equipment interconnecting wiring, and grounding of information technology equipment and systems in an information technology equipment room.

The only way this article could be used for your application is if your industrial control equipment was listed as "information technology equipment". I would doubt that it is as there are listing catagories for industrial control equipment.
The handbook comment has added wording that is not in the scope of the article.

 

[JS-Addis]

Thank all who commented on this thread, I think I have it now.