Test Procedure for Booster (Unlisted) Fire Pump?

9/11/2020

In an existing building utilizing a “booster pump” or unlisted fire pump for a standpipe or sprinkler system, is there a suggested annual flow test procedure?

I realize there is no manufacturer’s data (0%,100%,150% rated capacity) to compare the results against.

Should it be excluded from the annual flow test requirements, and just flowed during the 5 year roof top flow?

I would appreciate input as well as, what others in the industry are doing to address this fairly common scenario.

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4 Comments

Franck

9/11/2020 10:30:32 am

If there is no historical data, you can at least compare to the pump nominal point.
Sometimes you have the churn point (pressure - no flow), nominal point (nominal pressure - nominal flow) and overload point (pressure at 150% flow) on the plate on the pump casing.
If not, you may have at least the nominal point (flow/pressure) and you can compare with a theoretical curve as the pressure at churn point should be less than 120% of nominal pressure and pressure at overload point should be more than 65% of nominal pressure.
And you can start from this point to make your own historical data, year after year.
I would anyway make an annual flow test at 0%, 80%, 100%, 120% and 150% to give a trend over the years.

Peter

9/11/2020 10:46:24 am

The best I've ever been able to come up with is to have a conversation with the AHJ. I've seen some pretty bizarre "fire pumps" where it is part irrigation pump, part fire pump, etc. In some instances the AHJ asks we put a pitot on it to just capture as much water flowing at as much pressure as it can output. In other instances, the AHJ has looked back at historical records and given the original design data to which we can then test from. In other instances, we've had to calculate the system and then determine if the pump can achieve the demand. In a lot of instances the demand that was needed 50 years ago may be different than what is required per NFPA 13/14/etc. today, so having that conversation with the AHJ is important. From that point forward you can use that data to compare against to determine if performance degrades.

The fun part about these old pumps, especially ones that are dual purpose (provide some irrigation pumping or something else) is that sometimes they've been changed. In a situation we were dealing with, I assume that at some point the pump died and the lawn sprinkler guy came and replaced the pump. He assumed that the whatever sized existing pump was to powerful and not necessary to pop the lawn sprinklers up, so he put in a 1.5HP irrigation pump in it's place. He thought he was doing the customer a favor by putting in less expensive equipment.

Brian Gerdwagen FPE

9/14/2020 09:32:40 am

An unlisted booster pump, assuming that you mean a jockey pump, does not require a listing and does not require testing. As said above, you can start flowing the pump and recording data to compare to later tests.

If this is an unlisted pump that is the main fire pump, there should be a project started to replace it. Pumps are expensive, but to the owner, so are lawsuits. I can not comment on continuing to use an unlisted pump this way.

Peter

9/14/2020 11:22:03 am

I believe the original post was in regards to using an unlisted pump as the main 'fire pump' of the fire protection system. I have personally seen this a number of times on older buildings.

I think you'll have a very difficult time trying to convince an owner to replace a pump especially if it is functional. In the instances where we have come across these pumps, we've advised the customer that the pump isn't a listed fire pump installed per NFPA 20. This is usually the first time they've ever heard of that, since other contractors typically don't recognize or say anything about it. Even after you get the interest piqued the costs could be tremendous.

In an effort of transparency to the customer they may ask what the cost is and some costs could include:

New pump and motor
Change of piping orientation to meet NFPA 20
Change of pipe size to meet NFPA 20 and hydraulic needs
New controller to meet UL 448 and signal reporting to an NFPA 72 FACP
New transfer switch (and possibly generator if one doesn't exist or isn't sized to accommodate the load)
All the electrical work that is needed to connect everything
New backflow prevention if backflow prevention doesn't exist
Trenching the area to the new backflow to place tampers on the valves.
New FACP and potentially bringing the entire fire alarm system up to code if the FACP can't handle pump run, phase reversal, pump fail or the new tampers. (quite often older buildings have older conventional FACPs that simply don't have the available zones on the FACP to accommodate the new items).

The above are real life and I have actually had to do every one of those things on a project where the pump needed to be replaced. Sure, a pump is expensive at maybe $15-30k for the pump and electric driver and labor. Then add in all of the above and the project could easily skyrocket to the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Try explaining this to a customer who has never been told that their "fire pump" isn't a fire pump. Which is why I always start the conversation with. "Mr. Customer, you contracted us to test your pump. This isn't a listed fire pump and we should thing about an upgrade option. However, in the mean time, let me reach out to the AHJ and get the guidance I spoke of above." In that conversation you can feel out the AHJ to see if they would enforce replacement of the pump. If the customer calls the AHJ after you tell the customer they need to replace the pump and the AHJ says "why in the world would you replace the unlisted pump and spend all that money to upgrade?" then you're going to have a very hard time justifying yourself.

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