110.34(f) Fire Riser in Main Service Elect Room

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meyers32

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Per NEC 110.34(f), "Pipes and ducts foreign to the electrical installation and requiring periodic maintenance or whose malfunction would endanger the operation of the electrical system shall not be located in the vicinity of the service equipment... Protection shall be provided where necessary to avoid damage from condensation leaks and breaks in such foreign systems..." I have a situation in a small commercial building where we may need to bring the fire riser into the building through the electrical room that houses the 400A, 120/208V main service switchboard. There will be no valves, but there will be a flow switch, the rest is just pipe. The pipe does not enter the clear working area above or in front of the board, it is off to the side about 3 feet away.

What qualifies as outside of the "vicinity"? What sort of protection do I need to make this work? Or are these all questions that I should pose to the local inspector as interpretations vary?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Or are these all questions that I should pose to the local inspector as interpretations vary?
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I think that is a good place to begin.

My feelings are that if the fire sprinkler riser is not encroaching into the dedicated space or clear working space then you are OK, but again check with the AHJ for their interpretation.

Chris
 
The inspector said he didn't have a problem with it as long as there were as few couplings as possible and nothing else that could cause problems. So I'm moving the flowswitch elsewhere and callin it done. thanks for the advise.
 
Better check with the sprinkler codes. The may not allow the riser to be in an electrical room. The sprinkler designer in my office always wants a separate room / closet for the riser. I'm not sure why.
 
You can forget about 110.34(F) entirely, that section is located in part III of Article 110 and only applies to systems over 600 volts.

meyers32 said:
I have a situation in a small commercial building where we may need to bring the fire riser into the building through the electrical room that houses the 400A, 120/208V main service switchboard.
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