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Sprinklers in Life Safety Electrical Switchrooms

Do sprinklers need to be fitted in life safety rooms (assume secondary supplies switchroom and sprinkler pump room)? BS 5306 section 15 says that there is no issue with water and electric being in the same room as long as its low voltage.

I am a bit mixed with this, if a fire spreads to the switchroom then water might take the secondary supply out a bit too early, on the other hand If a fire starts first in the life safety switchroom then it should be extinguished immediately to avoid it having it spreading to other parts of the building.

Indeed other non water based systems are the best solution but i am curious if sprinklers are being used. Any scenario i think of takes me back that sprinklers should be fitted.

  • Would the ideal solution be to have the sprinklers there but make the electrical equipment resistant to the falling water? Presumably IPX3 or IPX2 even might be sufficient, or even just a shield/deflector of some kind above? Clean water isn't particularly conductive by itself anyway so I'd expect simple things like fuses switches without RCD protection to keep going for quite a while when wet anyway.

       - Andy.

  • Sprinkler water is far from clean unfortunately.

  • BS EN 12845 clause 10.3.2 states "Compartments for pumpsets shall be sprinkler protected"

    regards, burn