Elevators in Open Air Parking Garage

[rdbutler]

I'm looking for a good solution for the problem of providing for elevator recall in a parking garage that is open air and above grade.

We considered using beam smoke detectors because they would be less likely to be damaged from dust and humidity, but when the street sweeper goes through it is likely that clouds of dust would cause a false alarm.

Any ideas? How do the national codes address this scenario?

 

[muskiedog]

hook it into the existing alarm system and have it drop to the first floor by default. You have two options for the elevator. It can be controlled by the fire monitoring system or a sensor in the lobby areas of the elevator.

 

[daleh]

National Fire Alarm code does not allow the fire system to recall the elevator by default. Only elevator lobby, shaft and equipment room detectors are allowed to recall unless AHJ says otherwise.

If ambient conditions prohibit smoke detection, the fire alarm code allows other automatic fire detection. I have used weatherproof heat detectors in parking garages. You will need approval of your AHJ still.

Check out NFPA 72 2002 edition 6.15.3.. I don't have the section for the 2007 edition, but I don't think it's changed much.

 

[rdbutler]

Thanks

Thanks

Thank you daleh. I did call the AHJ and he is allowing us to use smoke and heat detection in the shaft and machine room only. The firemans keyswitch will recall also. So we are not putting any smoke detection in the lobby in this case.

 

[cjnickjr]

I just finished a similar install, we ended up using heat detectors in the lobby.