jeff kurtz
Member
It's my first time on this site and I'm not sure where to go to ask a question I have, so could you answer or direct me where to go?
I work at the U of Redlands.(Redlands, CA)
We have a large swimming pool at the Thompson Aquatic Center, with a full-time guy to maintain it. There are keyed switches in the locker rooms, lounge, and office for the overhead fluorescent lights in those respective places. The maintenance guy who works there doesn't have the fork key and put in work requests to install standard S.P. switches at those locations. Forget the obvious solution of getting him the key for a moment.
I first went to the locker rooms to install the switches,(before I spoke to the maintenance guy, Sean) and found the tile floor quite wet. The building is maybe 30 feet from the pool and the swimmers coming into the locker rooms are often dripping wet with bare feet and hands.
The alarm bells went off and this got me to thinking they were probably installed that way not for security or convenience, but for safety. The lighting circuits are 277v(not that 120v is safer) and off the top of my head I can think of all kinds of fault scenarios where the wet swimmers get a serious, if not fatal shock.
I checked the original prints for the building and keyed switches are called for.
The office and lounge are carpeted and would most likely not have wet bathers operating the switches, but, here comes my question-
I am not going to install standard switches in the locker rooms no matter what anyone says, but is there anything in the NEC or other NFPA documents which governs the use of keyed or special switches in pool building locker rooms or the like?
I work at the U of Redlands.(Redlands, CA)
We have a large swimming pool at the Thompson Aquatic Center, with a full-time guy to maintain it. There are keyed switches in the locker rooms, lounge, and office for the overhead fluorescent lights in those respective places. The maintenance guy who works there doesn't have the fork key and put in work requests to install standard S.P. switches at those locations. Forget the obvious solution of getting him the key for a moment.
I first went to the locker rooms to install the switches,(before I spoke to the maintenance guy, Sean) and found the tile floor quite wet. The building is maybe 30 feet from the pool and the swimmers coming into the locker rooms are often dripping wet with bare feet and hands.
The alarm bells went off and this got me to thinking they were probably installed that way not for security or convenience, but for safety. The lighting circuits are 277v(not that 120v is safer) and off the top of my head I can think of all kinds of fault scenarios where the wet swimmers get a serious, if not fatal shock.
I checked the original prints for the building and keyed switches are called for.
The office and lounge are carpeted and would most likely not have wet bathers operating the switches, but, here comes my question-
I am not going to install standard switches in the locker rooms no matter what anyone says, but is there anything in the NEC or other NFPA documents which governs the use of keyed or special switches in pool building locker rooms or the like?
