Hello everyone, I am currently working on a project where 5 deluge valves will be installed in a dedicate riser room. The room will only contain the deluge valves (5), the foam tank and air compressors.
How would you recommend I give dimensional requirements for this room to the architect? What's your thought process, or lessons learned, for sizing rooms like this? Thanks in advance - much appreciated. Sent in anonymously for discussion. Click Title to View | Submit Your Question | Subscribe
10 Comments
Dan Wilder
4/18/2024 07:26:36 am
Without knowing sizing...
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Glenn Berger
4/18/2024 08:06:49 am
Best thing to do is to layout the equipment to determine the minimum dimensions required. Include clear space required and required doors. This will give the architectures some confidence that you are giving them a real requirement.
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Mike Morey
4/18/2024 08:10:03 am
Dan as always makes a lot of great points. If you're a CAD person you can draw a layout of the header pretty easily. Almost every manufacturer has extensive 2d and 3d cad details of their valves. If not you can still take dimensions out of the cut sheets to draw something up using graph paper or similar and scale it out. Typically I'd look at the width of the valve including trim etc and then space them far enough apart to have room to service, 8-12" minimum typically from edge of one to the next. Typically we provide 12" behind and 36" in front of the header as well. Once the header and any backflow/proportioning etc equipment is all laid out I typically work backwards to fill in the tank, compressors, panels, etc. Depending on how long the header gets you may need to wrap it around a corner in an L to keep the room something approaching a square. If you have a backflow for example I'd put the tank on that side as it requires less interaction and has less small fiddly parts someone has to work in a corner to fix etc. I like to pull a fitter in and talk concept and show them a final sketch whenever possible since the good ones can visualize working on the thing/building it in real space.
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4/18/2024 08:19:51 am
The best way I've found is to actually lay all the equipment out in the room to scale. You have to ensure everything is to scale and the correct length. When you have this completed, there's no more guesswork, you can, with confidence show them exactly how much room you need, and you can also tell if the equipment will fit in the space that's provided, if you run into that in the future. It takes a few minutes to do, but it will ensure that you are telling them what you actually need and not just guessing at it.
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Anthony
4/18/2024 08:52:41 am
I like to take the size of the unit, plop it on a drawing, add 50% of the unit size to each side up to 2'-0.Thats your left/right clearance. Then double the size of the unit in front of the installed location up to the size of the unit + 30'' That allows a person (30'') + the unit to be brought into the room then installed/removed.
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Todd E Wyatt
4/18/2024 09:17:18 am
NFPA 70 National Electrical Code (NEC) has minimum prescriptive requirements regarding “work spaces” and “electrical space “ ( … space equal to the width and the depth of the equipment extending from the floor to a height of 6 ft (1.8 m) above the equipment or the structural ceiling, whichever is lower … ) which applies to switchboards, panelboards, switchgear, or motor control centers.
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RYAN HINSON
4/18/2024 09:52:25 am
Don't forget consideration for an upstream fireline strainer and possible strainer bypass if required by the applicable standards. What about possible room containment requirements for the foam concentrate...which may be local environmental ordinances or a DoD requirement?
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Jack G
4/18/2024 09:55:21 am
Todd and Dan are spot on.
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Jesse
4/18/2024 10:08:12 am
These are questions we get asked a lot. Not specific to foam deluge systems, but fire pumps, riser rooms, etc. With riser rooms for instance, there's no code really we can point to and say "I need X-sq. ft."
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Franck
4/19/2024 01:37:15 am
As indicated by all above, make a drawing of the room to scale and ask yourself if all key equipment are readily and easily accessible. It is one thing to have all equipment fit in one room, it is another one to reach the valves and other parts for testing and maintenance.
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