As described in NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code®, selective coordination is a design and application technique that coordinates protective devices (circuit breakers, for example) so that an overcurrent situation is limited to the smallest section of the circuit. While selective coordination is required in health care facilities, aspects of its requirement have been debated by certain NFPA committees.
In the latest edition of NFPA Journal, columnist Jeffrey Sargent highlights this debate among members of the NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities, Technical Committee on Electrical Systems and those in the NEC community.
"The new reality is that the NEC contains different requirements for electrical system coordination depending on occupancy type," says Sargent, NFPA's regional electrical code specialist. "The good news is that, with the advent of mandatory requirements on selective coordination, the industry is responding with new and better ways to accomplish the end result of a more reliable electrical system."
Get more details from Sargent in the January/February issue of Journal.