Automatic Doors on Life Safety Branch

[steve66]

Per 517.32 (H), in a Hospital, automatic doors for building egress are required to be on the Life Safety Branch.

However, for a nursing home (517.42), automatic doors aren't listed. Therefore, they are not permitted to be on the Life Safety Branch for a nursing home.

That seems odd. It seems like the exit doors would be equally important in both types of buildings. I'm wondering if not having the doors listed in 517.42 is an oversight. But surely, someone would have noticed by now.

Steve

 

[char]

Previously (and I don't remember the dates and I am too lazy to look them up) the life safety code (NFPA 99) required egress doors on life safety and the NEC did not allow it. Then the NEC added egress doors to 517 to solve this conflict. I don't think the discrepancy occurred in NFPA 99 for nursing homes - but would need to research that a bit further.

I'm not really sure how useful it is to have them on Life Safety, as we are usually required to have a connection to fire alarm system which disables the power connection upon fire alarm, to maintain the integrity of the fire rated system.