Color coding of Oneline for Hospital

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mshields

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
I'm generating a oneline for a hospital and client wants to have it color coded. LS will be RED. I'm wondering if there is a color convention for Critical and Equipment equipment?
 

George Stolz

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Windsor, CO NEC: 2017
Occupation
Service Manager
Since nobody has responded, I will seize the opportunity to say, "Color prints?" :)

I remember seeing pictures of a job Roger had a hand in, they had spray painted the conduits. I don't remember which color they chose for what, though.
icon9.gif
 

mshields

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
Color Prints?

Color Prints?

Yes - but only for posting on the electric room wall and that sort of thing. Not for construction documents.

I appreciate your not leaving me feeling neglected. Guess I get to pick my own colors. Alas an opportunity to be creative.

Thanks,

Mike
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
I don't think we are very far away from using color construction documents. After all, all the drafting is usually done in color, and the designers see everything in color as they are putting the documents together.

Even preliminary space planning drawings for clients are often printed in color. And with all the color printers, and copiers, etc., I think its just a matter of time.
 

mshields

Senior Member
Location
Boston, MA
That would be terrific

That would be terrific

Especially for intricate onelines. But as always, it's a matter of costs and I don't see any dramatic changes there do you?

Mike
 

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
mshields said:
Especially for intricate onelines. But as always, it's a matter of costs and I don't see any dramatic changes there do you?

Mike
I see a lot of drawings these days that come to us that use color. If i print them out, it is usually in B/W though. Its sometimes handy while viewing on a screen though.

My personal opinion is the next leap forward is some kind of usable portable viewer fro drawings. Maybe something wearable that looks like sun glasses where the drawing is displayed on the inside of the glasses.

There are a fair number of plants that no longer use much paper out on the floor.
 
Don't forget 517 standards. If you're wiring in a patient care area, you have to use specific conduit (MC, and I believe green sheathed at that, but I can't find it in the NEC at the moment) so you might want to call the AHJ and talk with them first.

They may also have a local code for that.

Just food for thought.
 
petersonra said:
My personal opinion is the next leap forward is some kind of usable portable viewer fro drawings. Maybe something wearable that looks like sun glasses where the drawing is displayed on the inside of the glasses.

My college drafting teacher thought that widescreen touch sensitive screens would be the future, but it would take a long time since there would be quite a few that would walk off of job sites.:D

We're already printing the medical gas piping plans for dentist offices in color for the plumber and the plumbing plans examiner, but not usually for full sets. The cost is still to great to justify unless it really helps the guys in the field. And most of the people holding the check book (on my end anyway) don't see the benefit of spending more unless they know a trade and spend time in the field, talking to the ones doing the work.
 
Cost? Most wide or roll-fed printers these days are ink-jet printers, and I haven't seen any that aren't color. Yes, you end up spending for color ink, but that isn't much more than the black. Now, if you're talking about the desktop A or B size color printers that aren't inkjet, those are more expensive to buy and use. OTOH the output is more colorfast than most inkjet.

In the field? Most generic inkjet inks are water soluble, so the moment the print get wet, the lines become blobs. Not so fun.

One thing about color that constantly gripes me is manufacturers that send their manuals as PDF files with color -everywhere-. The look fine on a screen, but when you print a few pages (or the whole thing), all the diagrams abd photos become mostly/completely useless.

So, if you're going to use color to convey information, make sure that the color will actaully make it to everyone that needs to see it, and that they -can- see it (aren't colorblind).
 

jghrist

Senior Member
zbang said:
In the field? Most generic inkjet inks are water soluble, so the moment the print get wet, the lines become blobs. Not so fun.
This is a good reason not to depend on color on construction prints. Large format color photocopiers are not common or cheap yet, so the only practical way to get color prints to the field is to plot them on an inkjet plotter.
 

rcwilson

Senior Member
Location
Redmond, WA
Color Coding One Lines

Color Coding One Lines

Bell Systems (before the breakup) had a standard for the Central Office Switchboard Mimics so any technician walking into a facility during an emergency could quickly decipher the local layout. Each switchboard had a mimic one line painted on the front or displayed with custom cut plastic color strips.

If I remember correctly: Normal Power (Utiltiy Service) was Green, Emergency Power (Diesel Generator) was Red, Critical Bus downstream of the Transfer Switch was Blue, and Normal Load bus was Brown or Black.

Highlighting the critical loads on the one line in color and then duplicating that color scheme on the gear might help maintenance crews understand their system better.
 
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