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Sprinklers Required in Electrical Rooms? [PDF]

8/17/2022

 
Awhile back I wrote a piece on sprinklers in electrical rooms. At the time I was asked relatively frequently about when sprinklers are required or allowed to be omitted in electrical rooms.
 
I guess intuitively, we recognize that electricity and water don’t mix well. We don’t want to address one problem (fire) by creating a new hazard (electrocution) with water in areas that it doesn’t have to be.
 
In principle, I personally have just about always provided sprinklers in electrical rooms unless they were specifically requested not to be provided by the owner or AHJ; and in those cases, I followed the code path in the IBC or NFPA 13 accordingly.
 
It seems as though the premise behind not including sprinklers is when the type of electrical equipment present a relatively low hazard or fuel source, and there is no storage. In that situation, a combination of 2-hour fire-resistance-rated enclosure with approved fire detection (assuming a smoke and/or heat detector here) will mean that a fire within the room will be recognized, and the rest of the building will not be compromised as a result.
 
Providing pipe within an electrical room isn’t always an easy feat. NFPA 70 tells us that electrical equipment requires dedicated zones, and pipe shouldn’t be run above panels without drip pans or other methods of avoiding drip hazards above electrical equipment.
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Now are sprinklers in electrical rooms problematic? Generally not (in my experience).
 
Can pipe routing be made to avoid electrical equipment? Usually yes. I try to only run one branch line into the room, most often above the door (since no electrical equipment is on the door), and stick pipe only above walking pathways within the room.
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Does the code or standards express any concern or guidance on this? Yes, both the IBC and NFPA 13 address the situation.
​
One line that is included in the IBC specifically says that sprinklers “shall not be omitted from any room merely because it...contains electrical equipment”. To me, that’s a fairly explicit way of suggesting that the presence of electrical equipment alone isn’t a justification for omitting sprinklers. Now there are code allowances and necessary provisions to do so, but the suggestion is not to simply avoid sprinklers just because there is electrical gear.
 
Despite it being awhile since that article, I have had a few requests to make this one into a flowchart, which I’m happy to present today. A special thank you to Alex Riley, PE, who contributed to the code research for this flowchart.

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GET THE FLOWCHART PDF
Char
8/17/2022 10:55:40 am

When asked to omit as an AHJ I will never completely allow them to be omitted. Depending on size and the room and assuming it’s a 2 hour rated room, I have allowed just sidewalls over the doors. It’s out of the way and effectively offers sufficient coverage, even if there are some shadows. And add smokes of course. This offers early detection and protection of the weakest element (the door) under ideal conditions, such as all fire stopping is in place.

Why might you ask will I never totally eliminate given that there is usually no fire load? Because electrical rooms become storage rooms once the AHJ leaves.

Shawn Daly
8/18/2022 10:52:49 am

The final choice for the 2019-2022 NFPA 13 thread concerning storage seems confusing. It says "Is storage permitted in the room?2" but the footnote 2 confirms storage is never permitted in such a room by NFPA 13 2019. Additionally, shouldn't the answers be swapped? If the answer is NO, shouldn't the flowchart indicate sprinklers are not required (green selection?)

Joe Meyer
8/19/2022 04:21:56 pm

Hi Shawn!

Thanks for the feedback. In 2019, the committee changed the standard to say that no storage is permitted whatsoever, including "noncombustible" storage.

And yes, we had a few quick comments about that updated and if you download it again you'll see the corrected version. We posted an email about this too.

Thanks so much Shawn!


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