Diesel fire pump electrical requirements

[rob46]

Please help me to identify codes which require provision of emergency (standby) power to the auxilliaries (battery chargers, heaters) of diesel fire pump.
Thank you.

 

[jraef]

In general, when asking questions about codes it's a good idea to state your location, this is an international forum.

If you are in the US, it would be in NFPA-70. Specifically, Article 695 covers Fire Pumps of any type.

If you are anywhere else, I have no idea.

Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework Read faq731-376

 

[rob46]

jraef,

Thank you for the replay. The project is in California and the fire pump is diesel driven. The electrical circuits are required only to fire pumphouse loadcenter for lighting, heaters and battery chargers.

 

[jraef]

Well, Article 695 has references to electric control circuits for engine driven pumps, but I see nothing about redundancy. NFPA-20-2003 is mentioned as a reference for the specific information regarding the pumps themselves and installation, but I don't have a copy of that so I have no idea if it covers anything with relation to the controls.

This outfit has some good resources available, you might try calling them. I have used their Fire Pump Controllers in the past, both Electric and Engine driven. Great folks.

http://www.mastercontrols.com/index.html

Eng-Tips: Help for your job, not for your homework Read faq731-376

 

[mc5w]

One thing that you need to watch is that the starting batteries need to be listed for emergency use and cannot be automotive types. Several reasons for this:

1. Automotive batteries have more sulfuric acid ( full charge specific gravity of 1.28 versus 1.21 for stationary batteries ) so as to be able to perform better when cold. This also means that automotive batteries have lightly more voltage than stationary batteries meaning slightly different charger adjustments. The idea is for technicians to only remember 1 set of charger adjustments, specicific gravities, and other forms of the Keep It Simple Stupid rule. You should also have battery heating blankets in case the spce heating fails or the cooling air dampers somehow jam open.

2. For batteries that require water addition UL and NFPA prefer that people use batteries with translucent jars so that checking and electrolyte level is both easier ( done more frequently ) and SAFER! There is no such thing as a maintenance free battery and a very popular "maintenance free" automotive battery allows access to the cells to add water and check specific gravity and otherwise maintain it. What it should be called is a REDUCED maintenance battery.


However, there are some solar charge controllers on the market that use a current measuring shunt is series with the battery so that they can maintain proper charge in spite of loads. This might actually be a good option for your battery charger as these charge controllers are intended to be more accurate.