Zenith Design Group Inc

Description

Myth Buster # 1: The Legend of the Red Junction Box. BACKGROUND: Lets face it. Most of the high profile jobs in this country are installed by the major national fire alarm companies. These being the hospitals, airports, skyscrapers, universities, etc. The wiring for these projects are always installed in conduit because the labor intensive work is sub-contracted to the project's electrical contractor with the final hookup and programming provided by the fire alarm equipment manufacturer. A POTENTIAL PROBLEM WAS IDENTIFIED: The common use of electricians on these projects who use the wiring methods are were accustomed to, has meant that usually these systems have single conductor THHN-type wires installed in EMT conduit. The potential problem became evident to anyone opening an electrical box that they were unable to distinguish the electrical service wire from the fire alarm wiring. A REMEDY WAS CREATED: The alarm industry admitted that this could be a problem and created a rule in the NEC. This simple fix was added a simple fix designed to prevent an un-informed individual from disturbing the fire alarm wiring while they assumed it was the electrical system they were working with. The resulting rule was added the NEC: "Fire alarm circuits shall be identified at terminal and junction locations...". The identity of the first person to paint a box red has been lost to history. Consequently, most of the engineers preparing plans and specifications have since required that fire alarm junction boxes be painted red. WHICH CREATED A NEW PROBLEM: Somehow, the common practice of engineers specifying that these boxes be painted red, has since lead to several other assumptions regarding codes and the fire alarm industry. The first assumption is that this is written in the codes, somewhere. (FACT: There is no rule in the NEC or NFPA 72 or anywhere else, that junction boxes be painted red.) It isn't a rule, and not required by code, for several good reasons: An un-informed individual, with little knowledge of his trade, will not know that red = fire alarm. Red could mean "electricity - danger". If they aren't qualified to be poking around in junction boxes, they sure won't know about this "un-written rule" regarding red boxes or red box covers! Red paint just doesn't convey the message. -It's gotten out of hand: Inspectors now assume that this is a rule and have actually required alarm companies to remove pull boxes, horns/strobes, etc. and paint the box red that they are attached to. I kid you not. (The fact that there's a pull box or horn-strobe attached to it should be indication enough that there's fire alarm wiring behind it, right?) More embarrassing is that the fact there are many who also "require" pull elbows to also be painted red. It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. -It's gotten WAY out of hand.

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