Emergency Circuits in Hospitals

[George Stavropoulos]

I am currently working in a Hospital in New York and have to wire up a nurse station . The nurse station is a knee wall made out of wood with a countertop. There are deck pipes that stub up inside the crevis of the knee wall that carry emergency ciruits. The carpenter has cut outs for outlets and I have to link the boxes every 2 feet . The problem is there are supports in the way and the crevis is about 4 inches. The engineer is calling for itto be done with pipe no hospital grade mc to ensure of maximum protection. I also want to state the knee wall is new. Please help.

 

[roger]

Write an RFI asking for instructions of how to do the install. The cabinet builder may have to assist you in getting the conduit into the piece and he'll probably want additional money so it may not be an easy remedy.

Roger

 

[Flex]

Why not flexible metal conduit? It can be used on emergency circuits.

 

[iwire]

Why not flexible metal conduit? It can be used on emergency circuits.

In general you cannot use flex for hospital emergency circuits.

517.30(C)(3) Mechanical Protection of the Emergency System.
The wiring of the emergency systems in hospitals shall be
mechanically protected. Where installed as branch circuits
in patient care areas, the installation shall comply with the
requirements of 517.13(A) and (B). The following wiring
methods shall be permitted:

(1) Nonflexible metal raceways, Type MI cable, or Schedule
80 PVC conduit. Nonmetallic raceways shall not be
used for branch circuits that supply patient care areas.

(2) Where encased in not less than 50 mm (2 in.) of concrete,
Schedule 40 PVC conduit, flexible nonmetallic or jacketed
metallic raceways, or jacketed metallic cable assemblies
listed for installation in concrete. Nonmetallic raceways
shall not be used for branch circuits that supply
patient care areas.

(3) Listed flexible metal raceways and listed metal sheathed
cable assemblies in any of the following:

a. Where used in listed prefabricated medical headwalls

b. In listed office furnishings

c. Where fished into existing walls or ceilings, not otherwise
accessible and not subject to physical damage

d. Where necessary for flexible connection to equipment

(4) Flexible power cords of appliances or other utilization
equipment connected to the emergency system.

(5) Cables for Class 2 or Class 3 systems permitted by Part
VI of this Article, with or without raceways

 

[roger]

Why not flexible metal conduit? It can be used on emergency circuits.

As Bob states, unless you meet one of the conditions in 517.30(C)(3)(3) you can not, and even if you could, the engineer could still say no and to see the specs.


Roger