Theatrical Mechanical Room storage

[RideTheSquirrel]

Hi friends,

so I've been over to one of our other theatres on campus this past weekend only to realize that the education department (who is located down a hallway) has moved a TON of file cabinets, papers, and wheel chairs, and other misc. items into that room (I'm even talking about a small portable grill, crayons, classroom supplies etc). The room has HVAC systems, CD80 Supervisor rack, and large transformer for all of our power going into that theatre in it. I can't find anything that has regulations/ codes for what can be put in a room of this nature. I have read a ton of speculation but I can't find a source; or a source that has the actual code language in it. Can anybody help me out? I'm assuming you can't store anything flammable or combustible.

 

[sk8rsdad]

The NEC defines minimum working clearances around all electrical equipment. The minimum varies with the age of the installation, voltage, and some other factors.

According to Google, the NFPA has a clause about it that is more restrictive:
315.3.3 Equipment rooms.
Combustible material shall not be stored in boiler rooms, mechanical rooms or electrical equipment rooms.

NFPA 90A, 4.3.11.4.3 prohibits storage in an "air-handling room plenum which is defined as "An individual room containing an air-handling unit(s) used to gather air from various sources and combine the air within the room before returning it to the air-handling unit."
NFPA 1, 2015 edition, Section 10.18.5.1 might apply too.

You'd have to hunt down a current version of the NFPA and NEC to be legit, but if the goal is to get the stuff out of your mechanical room then maybe it's good enough to cite those and make the offenders responsible for proving otherwise.

 

[Footer]

Should be a fairly easy thing to cite. But... most schools are breaking that rule just about everywhere so it might fall on deaf ears.

 

[What Rigger?]

My wife's a teacher, runs into this sort of thing a lot. You may have to go the path of "this is MY space, get your junk out by X date or it goes in the dumpster" at some point.

 

[MNicolai]

If you want to go full tilt, you can make a case for safety for the same reason electricians flip circuit breakers and disconnects with their non-dominant hand while also averting their eyes. If there ever was an arc flash incident, those non-essential, combustible materials in that room could be the difference between life and death for the victim, and could prevent first responders from being able to enter the room and render aid.

Remember when citing the NEC that those are minimum requirements. Often used to the define the minimum size of a room that has an electrical panel or transformer in it. They really do not take into consideration any kind of combustibles storage or slips, trips, and falls hazards in those rooms because of gak that's been put in the room. Even if it's outside of the minimum distance from particular panels and transformers, it presents an extra risk that should be accounted for, whether code requires it or not.

 

[RideTheSquirrel]

Thanks guys, that was more than enough ammunition to get accomplished what needed to be done.