These rooms also contain key protection systems and in larger installations they often include transformers the main advantage of a well designed electrical room is providing a central location where technical staff members can manage and service building power systems.
Electrical room exit door requirements.
A door in a means of egress should be side hinged or pivoted swinging.
Serving a room or area with an occupant load of 50 or more.
Outside of working and dedicated space needs there are many special considerations for electrical rooms that depend on building programs as well as exterior.
Where equipment rated 1200 a or more that contains overcurrent devices switching devices or control devices is installed and there is a personnel door s intended for entrance to and egress from the working space less than 7 6 m 25 ft from the nearest edge of the working space the door s shall open in the direction of egress and be.
Used in an exit enclosure or where serving a high hazard area.
Contains contents that are likely to burn with extreme.
Doors must swing in the direction of exit travel when.
A while back i wrote an article for doors hardware about panic hardware requirements for rooms housing electrical equipment.
The voltage and amperage thresholds that determine which rooms require panic hardware were changed in the 2017 edition of this code.
Again there are exceptions depending upon the nfpa 101 occupancy classification.
1910 36 e 2 the door that connects any room to an exit route must swing out in the direction of exit travel if the room is designed to be occupied by more than 50 people or if the room is a high hazard area i e.
Nfpa 70 national electrical code nec has been adopted by most us states and includes requirements for panic hardware or fire exit hardware on certain rooms housing electrical equipment.
The rule of thumb is panic hardware is required if the room has equipment with more than 600 volts or more than 800 amps previously 1200 amps or if it s a battery room.