ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 15-1994, Safety Code For Mechanical Refrigeration

Request from: Joseph I Burkowiski, Sverdrup Services, Inc., 400 South Fourth Street, St. Louis, MO 63102.

References. This request refers to Standard 15-1994, Subclauses 8.14 (d).

Background. An installation has a refrigerating machinery room meeting the requirements of 8.14 with the exception the exit door opens on to a shipping dock where exiting personnel would travel 160 feet to the nearest outside door. Three of the refrigerating machine room walls are sandwich panel construction and the fourth is concrete construction and has received a variance from the local code official. A second exit in the refrigerated machinery room, through the concrete wall, is available, however this exit opens into tenant spaces not to the outside. Subclause 8.14 (d) requires a refrigerating machinery room door opening directly to the outside or through a vestibule equipped with self closing tight-fitting doors.

Question 1. Can the shipping dock area be called a vestibule?

Answer 1. No

Question 2. If the answer to question 1 is no, would a second tight-fitting door and a small anteroom added to the existing refrigerating machinery room constitute a vestibule under 8.14?

Answer 2. Yes, if it exited to outside the building