Hospital

[lmchenry]

I am looking at a micropace heart machine that is being installed in a hospital.
They want to run the extension cables that will be hooked to the patient under the floor in PVC. These cables are very low voltage and are basically just communication cables. I am having a hard time deciding whether the PVC is allowed per 517. Any thoughts?

 

[steve66]

I don't think anything in 517 prohibits running these in PVC.

For a piece of medical equipment like this, I think the instructions are more applicable than trying to apply the NEC, especially if the cables are provided with the equipment.

Steve

 

[lmchenry]

My concern comes with 517.80. What is equivalent insulation and isolation refer to?

 

[steve66]

My concern comes with 517.80. What is equivalent insulation and isolation refer to?

Just an opinion, but I think it is refering to items similar to those listed in 517.64. Things like having metal parts gounded, not running 120V wires in the same raceway with low voltage wiring, having isolating transformers to separate the low voltage wiring from the line voltage, etc.

I don't think it refers to having wiring in metal conduit (which only applies to branch circuits.)

Again, I'm not sure 517.80 applies to your heart machine. I would call that more of an appliance than a "System". And I would tend to rely more on the UL listing of the equipment, and the installation instructions for it. If the manufacturer suggests running the leads through a PVC conduit, I would have no problem with it at all.

Steve