Hi all,

I have a bit of an issue on how to correctly apply some standards.

The job has some heat pumps in a room acting as the secondary side of a heating loop. The standard BS EN 378 Refrigerating systems and heat pumps — Safety and environmental requirements, is what was put to me as a standard to try and meet. Which I have no problem with, reading through, all seems quite reasonable.

When I get to 378-3, section 5.6, it talks about a remote emergency switch, which needs to be outside the room that stops the refrigerating system, it also needs to meet the requirements of emergency switches of EN ISO 13850 and EN 60204-1.

Normally this would be fine, but the only exit to the room that holds the equipment is onto a public access area. 

So that opens it up to a lot of nuisance stops. 

How do people balance following the given standards against use of the system, when a part of the standard can seemingly inhibit the systems usefulness.

This is especially odd in this case as the stop would not serve to avert or reduce hazards to people or damage to machinery, which is what the emergency function is intended for.

The standard doesnt seem to allow for it to be risked assessed out.

I can stand to learn a lot more about standards and how to apply them, but how does everyone else manage when they come across the edge case that would make applying the standard less effective.

Mike.