Im helping a local electrical contractor bid a fire job and it has the sprinkler head requirement with shunt trip breaker arangement to shut off power when sprinkler activates. I have added an addendum that my firm and electrical contractor are held faultless indemnified if something goes wrong ,and i cited all the problems with this arangement including the fact that shunt trip breaker can and do go bad and fail to operate and occupant of elevator cab could become trapped, injured or killed .I included the article i did for Pa firemans magazine as well needless to say this turned a few heads. I do not see the sprinler head being used at this point after all the liabilties were raised. has any one else delt with this issue. and what was AHJ etc response.
Sprinklers in elevator Shafts
Mar 07, 2006
6 Replies
This situation is quite common in our area.
I can only speak as to the fire alarm portion of this subject, as the rest is under the mantle of the elevator code.
If the hoist way, pit and mechanical rooms have sprinkler heads, then there MUST be a heat detector (located within 2 feet of the sprinkler head) designed to activate BEFORE the sprinkler activates. The fire alarm system should then activate a relay which fires the shunt-trip and shuts the elevator down.
The rational behind this is that, water is a bad thing for proper elevator function.
As you are aware, firefighters can override elevator recall functions, in order to evacuate the building or just do what they need to do. The shunt trip is to stop all use of the elevator before release of water and possible catastrophic equipment failure.
I am assuming that you are familiar with basic fire alarm installation and releaze that the shunt trip must be a part of the fire alarm system and that the power to activate the shunt trip must be supervised.
If your electrician friend still has questions about elevator recall and shunt trip requirements, he may wish to speak with the elevator inspector for your area, as they are really the ones who will be inspecting for proper operation. At least they are the ones who are responsible in our area; the local fire AHJ is not typically, looking at this area of the fire alarm system.
Hope some of this helped.
On the bright side, since this is a requirement under the code, your friend can't be held responsible if it works properly and shuts the elevator down.
Regards, Bill
Thats the problem The shunt trip breakers are unrelaible and have been know to fail to trip and shut power off. i have 2 such cases were they were used to shut down multiple power sources. NEC no longer allows there use becuse of this but ANSI says to use them. Either way after talking to AHJ he hasdetermined he does not want the liabilty. and is using the option were car contrcution design allows sprinkler head to be exempted.
If the elevator shaft is a brick/block or fire rated area sprinklers are not an issue. take em out...
Are you suggesting he remove a working fire suppression system?
thats what the inspector told us to do.. only requirement was to make sure the pass through holes were completely sealed after the water pipes were removed.
Sounds like Massachusetts.
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