Electric Room Fire Rating

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mjobee

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Do electric rooms require a fire resistive rating. We are aware of NEC 450.21, but is there anything other than this in the NEC or in the UBC that requires a one hour fire rating. Thanks in advance for your help.
 
450.21 is for transformers. Electrical room seperation ratings would depend on the surrounding occupancy clasification ratings per IBC or UBC which ever you are under.
 
Thanks Greg. We are out in CA, & under the CBC (calif building code), which adopts the UBC. We have a call into the local building department for their interpretation. The building in question occupancy classification is a group F, div1 as defined by UBC section 306, but I can't determine if this group requires a rated electric room. We are in the electrical industry & a few EC's have contacted us recently for a ruling. I believe this is strictly a building code issue, & not a NEC issue. Is this accurate. Their are xfmrs in the electric room over 112 kVA, however their insulation class exceeds 155.
 
It is under IBC or UBC group F to other occupancy separations is all I can find. NEC 450.21 exception 1, clearances must be followed though.....and your AHJ is another.
 
What is an 'electric room'?

Seriously.

When does a room that has electric equipment in it turn into an electric room?

What kind of electric equipment must be in the room before it becomes an electric room.

IMO there is no such thing as an electric room to the NEC and I doubt there is one to the building codes.
 
Thanks again Greg, all xfmr clearances are compliant. I believe this is a building code issue.This issue was actually generated by the GC, who asked the EC, who called us. I think the GC is making modifications to the existing electric room, & wants to know if one hour rating is required, we'll let the AHJ make the ruling.

Michael
 
Micheal, you will not find the term 'electric room' in the NEC.

Why do you believe it will be in the building code?

And again how much or what type of equipment must be present before a room turns into this 'electric room'.

A single panel?

A few panels?

An MCC?

Switchgear?

By the way I assume you were asking about equipment operating at less than 600 volts?
 
Yes, the system voltage is <600V. And I agree the term electric room in not in the NEC, we did a word search on our NEC software, nor can we find this issue in the UBC, nor is the term "electric room" defined anywhere. However, there are certain jurisdictions out here that have required certain building occupancy classifications to have "fire rated electric rooms", possibly through their own ammendments to the UBC. We don't know, thats why we're inquiring.

Michael
 
Michael, Bob is correct. What I was trying to tell you is that if your gear room, electrical room..ie where the panel is located, etc., is let's say entered from a corridor and a wall or walls back up to a condo unit it would be rated at 2 hrs. "IBC" due to occupancy classifications, But their is no mention of "Electrical rooms"........different AHJ's have different requirements.
 
I believe that under the IBC, storerooms greater than 100 sq ft have to be 1 hour rated unless sprinkled. You might find that is the source of the 1 hour requirement.

Jim T
 
jtester said:
I believe that under the IBC, storerooms greater than 100 sq ft have to be 1 hour rated unless sprinkled. You might find that is the source of the 1 hour requirement.

Jim T
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Jim true. however, NEC nor IBC chapter 3 do not mention " Electrical rooms" storage rooms are not classified as the above. OP mentioned UBC and is in Ca. Could be a local AHJ requirement. Separation of The "Electrical Eguipment Rooms" That is. Or an Interior fire resistive material even if combustible clearances are met.
 
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Table 508.2 of the IBC isn't great... but if you can call it a store room, it's 1 hour... for incidental use.. accessory uses can go to 10% without separation... (unfortunately the AHJ's call)...
 
One of the biggest myths in the industry is that electrical rooms have to be one hour. Probably comes from the old days and the corresponding requirement in the NEC about about 112.5 kVA XFMR's etc. or maybe even older when oil filled XFMR's were first put inside and the vault thing.
Back when I started as an inspector it was a game as to how restrictive you could "interpret" code requirements. Things sure have changed. May have come from that.

It just isn't so in CA under the current bldg code.

On a side note, I'd be interested to see the IBC section that requires storerooms to be one hour. They tell us we'll go on the IBC one day here in CA. Maybe my grandkids will see it. We're on the 2001 CBC which is based on the 1997 UBC. Only a decade behind.
 
Anyone know if this is covered by an NFPA standard. I've always assummed this was a building code issue but I can see that may not be so.

Joe
 
We looked into whether it is covered via NFPA prior to posting. We have most of their codes & standards, I don't believe it is. We have an email into the AHJ, it will be their call based on the occupancy group & any ammendments they may have.

Michael
 
Refer to NFPA 13 4-13.10 which requires sprinkler protection in electrical equipment rooms. There is an exception that sprinklers are not required when the room is dedicated to electrical equipment only; only dry-type electrical equipment is used; the room is 2-hr fire rated and no combustible storage is permitted.

If the room is sprinkled I do not believe there is a rating requirement, unless there is a local code. If there are no sprinklers in the electrical room then it needs to 2 hr rated.
 
iwire said:
Do they provide a definition of an 'electrical equipment room'?
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Hi Bob

Does the NEC provide a definition of electrical equipment? If it does, wouldn't any room with electrical equipment be an electrical equipment room?

110.26 is all about spaces about electrical equipment.

110.26 D mentions electrical equipment rooms.

What is the definition of electrical equipment?:-?
 
Neither the nec, nfpa, ubc or ibc provides a definition for "electrical equipment room" or "electric room". Thanks bwyllie for the nfpa 13 info. We have the 2007 nfpa 13, it is article 8-15.10 in lieu of 4-13.10 but it states the same, & seems to be applicable to the OP. We also spoke to the ahj building official today. Their local ruling also requires compliance with nfpa 13, as well as equipment rooms with fire pumps shall have a 2 hour rating, & certain building occupancy classifications i.e. where the electric room wall is common with an exit corridor on the other side of the electric room wall, H7 occupancies, etc...

Michael
 
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