Hospital tel switch disconnecting means

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lj

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NEC 645.10 requires a means to disconnect power to all electronic equipment in the information technology equipment room (ITER). NEC 517.32(E) requires hospital communications systems to be connected to the life safety branch if used for issuing instructions during emergency conditions. Please consider my dilemma where a telephone switch is installed in the hospital's ITER and is used for issuing instructions during emergency conditions. The -48Vdc power source for the tel switch is a rectifier system with battery backup, and it happens to be installed outside the ITER. Must I provide a means to disconnect the dc power from the tel switch, even though the tel switch is life safety equipment? Thank you.
 
There is no code requirement to use Article 645. The only reason to do so would be to take advantage of some of the relaxed rules in that section. Many IT rooms are not installed per 645, and one of the reasons is to get away from the required disconnect.
Don
 
Many thanks for your quick reply. That is a good point about no code requirement. I forgot to mention that the ITER is in operation and has already taken advantage of the relaxed rules, so a disconnecting means is in place for existing equipment as required. The tel switch is now being added, and it just seems an odd risk to have life safety equipment subject to shutdown like this, but I find no NEC exceptions that would allow the tel switch to be exempt from the disconnecting means. NEC 645.11(2) allows power supplies up to 750 volt-amperes, but the tel switch power supply far exceeds that.
 
My opinion would be that the telephone switch can't be placed in the IT room, or the hospital will have to provide an alternate emergency paging system, or get rid of the items using the relaxed rules. (Although I'm not sure what code is requireing the emergency paging system - if its only required for fire alarms, fire alarm annunciator devices might suffice. But it would be much simpler to relocate the telephone switch.)
 
Thank you for cutting straight to the logic of the situation, Steve. Now that the problem has been well defined, perhaps the hospital will look at an alternative paging system.
 
If the IT room is small, it still seems like it would be easier to get rid of the article 645. Those disconnects cause a lot of problems.

Steve
 
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