ACU at petrol station

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davetheglitz

Electrician
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I turned down a job yesterday - but wanted to see if I did the right thing.

In a petrol station the inside unit of the Air Conditioning Unit was to go in the forecourt shop, and the outside unit above the canopy over the forecourt attached to the front wall of the shop. The umbilical between them would be on the front wall of the shop - so there would be current carrying conductors for around 4m on the forecourt.

I haven't got any reference to the regs for petrol stations, but I suspect that above the canopy is out of the area - and not sure how we stand on current carrying conducors in the umbilical - which arguably are euipment based rather than part of the installation.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 
I turned down a job yesterday - but wanted to see if I did the right thing.In a petrol station the inside unit of the Air Conditioning Unit was to go in the forecourt shop, and the outside unit above the canopy over the forecourt attached to the front wall of the shop. The umbilical between them would be on the front wall of the shop - so there would be current carrying conductors for around 4m on the forecourt.

I haven't got any reference to the regs for petrol stations, but I suspect that above the canopy is out of the area - and not sure how we stand on current carrying conducors in the umbilical - which arguably are euipment based rather than part of the installation.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I notice no one has replied to this as yet?????

perhaps that speaks volumes!!

My understanding is that petrol stations have far more stringent rules due to the obvious dangers of combustion and risks to the public?

I know the NICEIC have there own special approval for contractors working in hazardous areas;

http://www.niceic.org.uk/editor/nroot/niceic/technicalapprovals/overview/list-of-hazardous-areas-approvals

I guess that the relevant authorities would need to see some sort of confirmation that any contractor is a member of a scheme such as one of these or similar? before permitting work to proceed.

I think in these situations if in doubt.. don't do it! :)

 
OK,

I'll try and answer as best I can then.

yes, petrol station forecourts have their own regs and prohibitions,

many moons ago I used to have a petrochem cert that allowed me to work in these ares, I would suspect that if nowadays you dont have this cert or the equivalent then no matter what organisation you belong to no one would stand by your workmanship and I would very much doubt your insurance company would either.

if I remember correctly nothing could simply be just wired, umbilical or not, when we did pumps canopy lights etc all was in pyro, 3core with secondary earth, the sheath was simply a ground to prevent static. etc.

I would be pretty certain that your umbilical would be treated the same, requires a static ground, no matter what material it is made of, remember that nylon is none metallic and still produces static.

short answer, if you need to ask the question then stay away from it.

PETROCHEM is HAZARDOUS,

and has its own set of rules.

 
Thanks for all of the replies - it seems that I have done the best thing by not taking the job! Still learning!Cheers

Dave
I think you should treat that as a positive! :)

Your gut instinct was right!! :) :)

It is always better that way round :D :D

 
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