Duct heater and humidifier on E-power?

[anbm]

Hospital - if the air handler serving the O.R. is powered from emergency generator,
will associated duct heater and humidifier need to be powered from generator as well?
Couldn't find anything from NEC on this matter... We try not to overload the generator
with unnecessary loads if possible... On the other hand, not sure if the air handler will work
well without those two pieces of equipment when the building's on generator power. Are there
any mech. folks here?

 

[Ragin Cajun]

They are at the hospitals I have worked on. No heat in the winter is not good. RC

 

[rlundsrud]

Since this is an OR and it needs to maintain space temp and humidity, then yes I think it should. I can't site any relevant codes that might help.

 

[kwired]

Since this is an OR and it needs to maintain space temp and humidity, then yes I think it should. I can't site any relevant codes that might help.

I don't think you will find the answer in NEC, it is going to come from health care related codes as to what needs to be supplied during certain conditions. But yes if you want to maintain operation of that OR during failure of normal power then it is likely you need air conditioning/treatment. Types of procedures normally done may have some impact on how critical the air system is. Treatments that are normally short duration and not too invasive possibly may not need air conditioning if you intend to finish up current treatment and then not start any new ones until normal power is restored, but those are also likely the minor surgeries that are done in outpatient clinics anymore, where threat to life is usually considered to be low with those procedures.