Optional standby circuit requirements

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Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
Article 517 is somewhat confusing at times. Can someone guide me in the right direction on if optional standby circuits in patient care need to be piped or does hospital grade MC/AC cable suffice. These OS circuits are in dialyisis treatment rooms.

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Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
By optional do you mean they are not critical or life safety circuits?

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The only generator power is LS and OS circuits. The LS are only for illumination and OS are for IT closets and dialysis treatment rooms. I am wondering if HCF would be suffice since the print does not call these critical branch circuits. Is my thinking wrong?

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electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
Look up the specs on the HCF and read it closely.
Read the specs for the job very close as well.
If its on a generator back up the best thing is pipe as a wiring method.
I recently made a huge mistake with HCF mc.
Not worth the risk.

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Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
The job does not specify hard pipe. I have only worked on 2 other hospital settings and have not ran into optional standby circuits; just LS and critical.
The worst thing is is that the hospital is adding 8 additional circuits and it all fabricated head walls on site that are not listed assemblies which would give us the opportunity to run hospital grade MC if they where. The cabinets have about 2- 1/2" of room. between two water panel controls that we have to pipe around to get to the j-boxes.

What I find in the code book (2014) is that you can mix optional standby and and none emergency power. But you have to hard pipe in critical care patient areas.

Can you tell me what your experience was so I can get a better understanding.

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electricalist

Senior Member
Location
dallas tx
My experience was not reading all of the uses HCF could not be used for, and EES . I believed that a generator would create the EES. Not sure about " optional."
What article is the optional circuits in, I think I needs to read up on it?

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Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
Article 517.30 (b)3
Then there is article 702 that can be amended by article 517. I get so confused sometimes.
I do know there are different levels of EES that us as electrician do not get envolved with, its more engineer and local AHJ.

From what I understand that plays a big difference with critical and LS circuits requirements.

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Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
517.30(c)3 does not say optional standby circuits or equipment branch. It only specifies mechanical protection for life safety and critical branch circuits.

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roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
In 517 applications the Equipment Branch is the equivalent to Optional Standby, see 517.34 for the specifics.

Roger
 

Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
In 517 applications the Equipment Branch is the equivalent to Optional Standby, see 517.34 for the specifics.

Roger
So what is your interpretation of a hospital that has one generator with two transfer switches,one for life safety and one for optional standby; would optional standby circuits be required to be hard pipe.

Can you elaborate on your previous response.

I keep reading 517.30(c)3 and I don't see any other way other than hard pipe method. Then you read 517.13(a) and (b). Is a optional standby branch circuit considered a critical branch circuit as well since it is on the EES?

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roger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Fl
Occupation
Retired Electrician
So what is your interpretation of a hospital that has one generator with two transfer switches,one for life safety and one for optional standby; would optional standby circuits be required to be hard pipe.

Can you elaborate on your previous response.

IMO the Equipment Branch or other Optional loads covered in 517.30(B)(5) do not need to be protected the same as the Critical and Life Safety Branches and this is reiterated by the exclusion of Equipment Branch in the wording of 517.30(C)(3). Read the last sentence of 517.30(C)(1), it evens allows Equipment Branch wiring to be installed in raceways with the Normal System wiring


Roger
 

Ohms law

Senior Member
Location
Sioux Falls,SD
Thats what lead me to believe that I could run hospital grade MC and be compliant. If the code could only be more straight to the point. Thank God for the handbook with all the pictures :)

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