Fire pump control wiring 1

[rob46]

The requirements for installation of fire pump power wiring are covered by NFPA 20 and the NEC. I am not clear whether the control wiring between fire pump controller and a remote fire pump alarm panel has to be encased or be listed as required by Art. 695.6 of the NEC. Thank you for any clarification on this matter.

 

[EEJaime]

NEC 695-6 is specifically about "Power Wiring". It does not address the control wiring. The only thing that it enforces is that no matter what, the pump must run. Remote alarms are important, but not critical as long as the pump continues to operate. All the subsecttions of 695 deal with the power feed to the pump. If you are running the feeder in the required fire rated enclosure, you can include a conduit for controls, they rarely go to the same place though.

As a side note, are you familiar with the copper bound fire rated fire pump feeder manufactured by "Pyrotenax"? I have found that this saves a lot of time effort and cost. It's costly, but a bargain when compared to the cost of providing rated shafts, encased conduit, etc....

 

[rbulsara]

I tend to agree with eejamie on control wires..

 

[rbulsara]

In fact i should say..the wiring for 'monitoring" does not have to in rated enclosure.. You are referreing the term 'control wiring' loosely I assume. There should be no control wiring for the pump controller outside of its UL listed enclosure.

The wiring of the waterflow switch which may singal the start of the pump, should be well protected, but I do not think it is required to be in rated enclosure.

 

[rob46]

Thank you for the clarifications.
Bob

 

[mc5w]

In some instances of lighting controllers we use a normally closed power relay and a reverse logic control circuit for some of the lights. This way, if the control power or circuit should fail, some of the lights will kick on.

One possible failure mechanism is that mice chew on the wires. How we found out that grandmother could not let of 120 volts was also how we found out that saliva is semiconductive enough that rabbits think that 120 volts is delicious. You cannot electrocute a rabbit by sticking 120 volts in its mouth. Up the rabbit's armpit and that rabbit is going to turn into dinner.

I have alos vacuumed out enough 480 volt streetlighting handholes to know that you cannot electrocute a mouse by sticking 277 volts into its mouth. I did not find any dead mice and I do not think that the mice waited for the lighting controller to turn off the control power during the daytime.

I one time tried out the Tongue Voltmeter Method using 120 volts from the GFCI receptacle in my bathroom. Made my left arm hurt a little but did not trip the GFCI and the test button does work and the GFCI is self checking. The center of the tongue is 100% insensitive to electric shock. So, I am willing believe that some old timers had tongues that were black from sticking a wire into their mouths and a 480 volt power outlet instead of using a real voltmeter.

There is not a way for me to stop mice from getting black spots on their tongues just as long as I make sure that I do not get black spots on my fingers!