Shunt Trip on Fire Alarm Signal

[charlie b]

Where would I find any requirements for including shunt trip breakers that would interface with the Fire Alarm system? Are such requirements limited to certain types of facilities, or certain types of loads, or certain types of fire suppression systems? A contractor is asking whether they need to install shunt trip breakers to turn off all electrical equipment in a specific room, in which aircraft engine testing is performed. I did not include that feature in the design, and this would naturally come at a significant extra cost.

 

[gadfly56]

Where would I find any requirements for including shunt trip breakers that would interface with the Fire Alarm system? Are such requirements limited to certain types of facilities, or certain types of loads, or certain types of fire suppression systems? A contractor is asking whether they need to install shunt trip breakers to turn off all electrical equipment in a specific room, in which aircraft engine testing is performed. I did not include that feature in the design, and this would naturally come at a significant extra cost.

Using a shunt trip to shut down an elevator is in the ASME standard, and removing power from cooking appliances is in NFPA 17A, so I would say the answer is found in whatever standards govern the equipment/facility. NFPA 72 doesn't say a lot about elevator shunt, for example, except regarding delay and monitoring of shunt power.

Does the industry for which you designed the facility typically require shutting down the equipment during an adverse event?

 

[charlie b]

Thanks, gadfly. The "industry" is the US government, and the facility is on a joint army/air force base. I did not think there was a requirement for a shunt trip action during a sprinkler release. A previous and similar project at a different base did not have them.

 

[gadfly56]

Thanks, gadfly. The "industry" is the US government, and the facility is on a joint army/air force base. I did not think there was a requirement for a shunt trip action during a sprinkler release. A previous and similar project at a different base did not have them.

When you say "sprinkler release", is this a pre-action or deluge system? These systems usually have fire alarm-based releasing panels. Any shut downs would be strictly driven by the job specs. The one shutdown that is commonly required is an EPO interface when you have a clean agent system, but that's not usually a shunt, just a parallel input from the fire alarm to the standard EPO button.