Grandfathering Power Requirements to Hospitals 1

[PracticingEngineer]

Grandfathering Power Requirements to Eye Surgery Hospitals:

Concerning older medical facilities which require Type-1 Essential Electrical Systems (ESS) (Life Safety Brach & Critical Branch) Generator and ATS:

When does it become required to provide ESS, just during significant remodel or is there a cut-off date to adhere to depending on how old the facility is?

 

[dpc]

For a life-safety situation such as this, I think this would be totally at the discrection of the local authority having jurisdiction. The NEC allows some latitude in determing to what extent existing systems must be brought up to new codes during remodeling. In the case of a hospital, I suspect the AHJ would be very conservative and require any significant variances from current codes to be corrected.

And if I were the responsible design engineer, I'd start out bringing everything up to new code and let someone in a higher pay grade make the decision (in writing) to cut corners.