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517.18(A) General Care Areas in Health Care Facilities — Patient Bed Locations — Critical Branch Receptacles Must Have Distinctive Color or Marking

Change Summary

  • Receptacles or cover plates supplied by the critical branch must have a distinctive color or marking to be readily identifiable
  • These receptacles must also indicate the panelboard and branch-circuit number that supplies them
  • The term “emergency system” was removed from Article 517.  So effectively, 1 of the 2 circuits supplying these locations now must be from the critical branch
NEC® Text

 
517.18 General Care Areas

(A) Patient Bed Location.  Each patient bed location shall be supplied by at least two branch circuits, one from the critical branch and one from the normal system.  All branch circuits from the normal system shall originate in the same panelboard.  The electrical receptacles or the cover plate for the electrical receptacles supplied from the critical branch shall have a distinctive color or marking so as to be readily identifiable and shall also indicate the panelboard and branch-circuit number supplying them.  Branch circuits serving patient bed locations shall not be part of a multiwire branch circuit.

Copyright© 2013 National Fire Protection Association

(See NEC for complete text)

Expert Analysis

This change was initiated to align distinctive marking and circuit identification requirements within Article 517.18(A) of the NFPA 70,  with articles found in NFPA 99 “The Health Care Facilities Code”.  By removing the term “emergency system”, Article 517.18(A) not only aligns with articles in NFPA 99, it also eliminates any confusion between NFPA 70 Articles 517.18 (A) and NFPA 70 Article 700.

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