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Sharing Abstracts,Notes on various Electrical Engineering Topics.

Electrical Thumb Rule- High Rise Building (As

per NBC)

SEPTEMBER 1, 2019 2 COMMENTS (HTTPS://ELECTRICALNOTES.WORDPRESS.COM/2019/09

/01/ELECTRICAL-THUMB-RULE-HIGH-RISE-BUILDING-AS-PER-NBC/#COMMENTS)

Luminous Efficacy, Life, Lumen Maintenance and Color Rendition (Table-8) NBC
Efficacy
Light Source WaĴage Average Life Maintenance ColorRendition
(lm/W )
Incandescent lamps 15 to 200 12 to 20 500 to 1000 Fair to good Very good
300 to Good to very
Tungsten halogen 20 to 27 200 to 2000 Very good
1500 good
Standard fluorescent
20 to 80 55 to 65 5000 Fair to good Good
lamps
Compact fluorescent Good to very
5 to 40 60 to 70 7500 Good
lamps (CFL) good
Slim linefluorescent 18 to 58 57 to 67 5000 Fair to good Good
High pressuremercury
60 to1000 50 to 65 5000 Very low to fair Federate
vapor lamps
Blended – lightlamps 160 to250 20 to 30 5000 Low to fair Federate
High pressure sodium 10000 to
50 to1000 90 to 125 Fair to good Low to good
vapor lamps 15000
Metal halide lamps 35 to 2000 80 to 95 4000 to 10000 Very low Very good
Low pressure 10000 to Good to very
10 to 180 100 to200 Poor
sodium 20000 good
Good for white
LED 0.5 to 2.0 60 to100 10000 Very good
LED

Approximate Cable Current Capacity

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Requirements for Physical Protection of Underground Cables (As per NBC)

Protective Element Specifications

(a) 100 mm minimum width
(b) 25 mm thick
Bricks
(c) sand cushioning 100 mm and sand cover
100 mm
Concrete slabs At least 50 mm thick
Plastic slabs (polymeric cover strips) depending on properties and has to be matched
Fiber reinforced plastic with the protective cushioning and cover
PVC conduit or PVC pipe or The pipe diameter should be such so that the
stoneware pipe or Hume pipe cable is able to easily slip down the pipe
The pipe diameter should be such so that the
Galvanized pipe
cable is able to easily slip down the pipe
The trench shall be back filled to cover the cable initially by 200 mm of sand fill; and then a
plastic marker strip hall be put over the full length of cable in the trench.
The marker signs shall be provided where any cable enters or leaves a building. This will
identify that there is a cable located underground near the building.
The trench shall then be completely filled. If the cables rise above ground to enter a building
or other structure, a mechanical protection such as a GI pipe or PVC pipe for the cable from
the trench depth to a height of 2.0 m above ground shall be provided.

AREA REQUIRED FOR GENERATOR IN ELECTRIC SUBSTATION (As per NBC)

Clear Height below the Soffit of the Beam

Capacity kVA Area m2
m
25 56 3.6
48 56 3.6
100 65 3.6
150 72 3.6
248 100 4.2
350 100 4.2
480 100 4.2
600 110 4.6
800 120 4.6

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1010 120 6.5

1250 120 6.5
1600 150 6.5
2000 150 6.5

Low Voltage Cabeling for Building (As per NBC)

Cables/wires, such as fiber optic cable, co-axial cable, etc. These shall be
laid at least at a distance of 300 mm from any power wire or cable. The
distance may be reduced only by using completely closed earthed metal
trucking with metal separations for various kind of cable. Special care
shall be taken to ensure that the conduit runs and wiring are laid
Low Voltage properly for low voltage signal to flow through it.
Cable The power cable and the signal or data cable may run together under
floor and near the equipment. However, separation may be required
from the insulation aspect, if the signal cable is running close to an un-
insulated conductor carrying power at high voltage. All types of signal
cables are required to have insulation level for withstanding 2 kV
impulse voltages even if they are meant for service at low voltage.
Power conduit=Black
Security conduit=Blue
Conduit Color
Fire alarm conduit=Red
Scheme
Low voltage conduit=Brown
UPS conduit Green

Sub Station Guideline (As per NBC)

Location of substation in the basement should be avoided, as far as

possible.
If there is only one basement in a building, the substation/switch room
shall not be provided in the basement and the floor level of the substation
Substation Location
shall not be lowest point of the basement.
Substation shall not be located immediately above or below plumbing
water tanks or sewage treatment plant (STP) water tanks at the same
location
All door openings from substation, electrical rooms, etc, should open
outwards
SubstationDoor/ShuĴer Vertical shuĴers (like rolling shuĴers) may also be acceptable provided
they are combined with a single leaf door opening outwards for exit in
case of emergency

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For large substation room/electrical room having multiple equipment,

two or more doors shall be provided which shall be remotely located
from each other
No services or ventilation shafts shall open into substation or switchroom
unless specific to substation or switch room
In case of HV panel and transformers located at different floors or at a
distance more than 20 m, HV isolator shall be provided at transformer
end
In case transformer and main MV/LV panel room are located at different
floors or are at a distance more than 20 m, MV/LV isolator shall be
provided at transformer end
In case of two transformers (dry type or transformers with oil
quantity less than 2 000 liter) located next to each other without
Transformer Location intermiĴent wall, the distance between the two shall be minimum 1 500
mm for 11 kV, minimum 2 000 mm for 22 kV and minimum 2 500 mm
for 33 kV. Beyond 33 kV, two transformers shall be separated by baffle
wall of 4 h fire rating.
If dry type transformer is used, it may be located adjacent to medium
voltage switchgear in the form of unit type substation. In such a case, no
separate room or fire barrier for the transformer is required either
between transformers or between transformer and the switchgear,
thereby decreasing the room space requirement; however, minimum
distances as specified.
Substations with oil-filled equipment/apparatus transformers and high
voltage panels shall be either located in open or in a utility building
They shall not be located in any floor other than the ground floor or the
first basement of a utility building not be located below first basement
slab of utility building.
They shall have direct access from outside the building for operation and
maintenance of the equipment.
It shall be separated from the adjoining buildings including the main
Oil Filled Equipment building by at least 6 m clear distance to allow passage of fire tender
(Transformer / C.B) between the substation/utility building and adjoining building/main
building.
Substation equipment having more than 2 000 liter of oil whether located
indoors in the utility building or outdoors shall have baffle walls of 4 h
fire rating between apparatus.
Provision of suitable oil soak-pit, and where use of more than 9 000 liter
of oil in any one oil tank, receptacle or chamber is involved, provision
shall be made for the draining away or removal of any oil which may
leak or escape from the tank, receptacle or chamber containing the same

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supply is at 240 V single phase up to 5 kVA, 415/240 V 3-phase from

5 kVA to 100 kVA, 11 kV (or 22 kV) for loads up to 5 MVA and 33 kV or
66 kV for consumers of connected load or contract demand more than 5
MVA.
In case of connected load of 100 kVA and above, the relative advantage of
high voltage three-phase supply should be considered.
Power Supply Voltage
In case of single point high voltage metering, energy meters shall be
installed in building premise,such a place which is readily accessible to
the owner/operator of the building and the Authority. The supplier or
owner of the installation shall provide at the point of commencement of
supply a suitable isolating device fixed in a conspicuous position at not
more than 1.7 m above the ground so as to completely isolate the supply
to the building in case of emergency
In case of cable trench in substation/HV switch room/MV switch room,
the same shall be adequately drained to ensure no water is stagnated at
Trench Drain any time with live cables.

Enclose any part of the substation which is open to the air, with a fence
(earthed efficiently at both ends) or wall not less than 1800 mm
Fence for Substation (preferably not less than 2400 mm) in height

The power supply HV cables voltage shall not be more than 12 kV and a
separate dedicated and fire compartmented shaft should be provided
for carrying such high voltage cables to upper floors in a building. These
HV Distribution in shall not be mixed with any other shaft and suitable fire detection and
Building suppression measures shall be provided throughout the length of the
cable on each floor.

Switch room / MV switch room shall be arrived at considering 1200 mm

clearance requirement from top of the equipment to the below of the
soffit of the beam .In case cable entry/exit is from above the equipment
(transformer, HV switchgear, MV switchgear), height of substation
Switch Room / MV room/HV switch room/MV switch room shall also take into account
switch room requirement of space for turning radius of cable above the equipment
height.

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About Jignesh.Parmar
Jignesh Parmar has completed M.Tech (Power System Control), B.E(Electrical). He is member of
Institution of Engineers (MIE) and CEng,India. Membership No:M-1473586.He has more than 16 years
experience in Transmission -Distribution-Electrical Energy theft detection-Electrical Maintenance-
Electrical Projects (Planning-Designing-Technical Review-coordination -Execution). He is Presently
associate with one of the leading business group as a Deputy Manager at Ahmedabad,India. He has
published numbers of Technical Articles in “Electrical Mirror”, “Electrical India”, “Lighting
India”,”Smart Energy”, “Industrial Electrix”(Australian Power Publications) Magazines. He is
Freelancer Programmer of Advance Excel and design useful Excel base Electrical Programs as per IS,
NEC, IEC,IEEE codes. He is Technical Blogger and Familiar with English, Hindi, Gujarati, French
languages. He wants to Share his experience & Knowledge and help technical enthusiasts to find
suitable solutions and updating themselves on various Engineering Topics.

2 Responses to Electrical Thumb Rule- High Rise Building (As

per NBC)

Muhammad Mohsin Ansari says:

September 1, 2019 at 2:40 am
thanks……….Jignesh.Parmar

Reply
J.Sridharan says:
September 1, 2019 at 3:53 am
Thanks Good information.
Cable current mentioned is for copper or aluminium conductor

Reply

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