INF.5 Room or Cabinet for Technical Infrastructure

Adequate technical and organisational requirements MUST be defined and implemented for a room for technical infrastructure. The level of protection to be achieved for the room MUST be considered. Planning MUST take into account both legal rules and regulations and potential hazards related to environmental influences, intrusion, and sabotage.

A technical infrastructure room MUST NOT be a passageway. It MUST be ensured that sufficient space is available for escape routes and the work activities planned.

A technical infrastructure room MUST be protected against unauthorised access. There MUST be rules on who may enter the room, for which areas, for what purposes, and for how long. In this respect, it MUST be ensured that no unnecessary or excessive site access rights are granted. All instances in which a person accesses a technical infrastructure room SHOULD be individually recorded by a site access control system.

A technical infrastructure room MUST be protected against intrusion. Depending on the required security level of the room, suitable room-forming components SHOULD be selected, such as walls, ceilings, and floors, as well as windows and doors with appropriate resistance classifications in line with DIN EN 1627.

Electromagnetic fields MUST be avoided in the immediate vicinity of a technical infrastructure room. A sufficient distance to large machines such as lift motors MUST be maintained.

Fire loads within and in the immediate vicinity of a technical infrastructure room MUST be minimised. Combustible materials MUST be avoided in room-forming components.

A technical infrastructure room MUST NOT be used for other purposes (e.g. as a storeroom or cleaning cupboard).

The power supply grid supplying a technical infrastructure room and the terminal equipment connected to it MUST be constructed as a TN-S system.

A dissipative floor covering SHOULD be installed in a technical infrastructure room in accordance with DIN EN 14041.

It SHOULD be ensured that the air temperature and humidity in a room for technical infrastructure are within the limits specified on the data sheets of the equipment operated in the room. A suitable ventilation and air-conditioning system SHOULD be used for this purpose. This system SHOULD have sufficient capacity.

A room for technical infrastructure SHOULD only contain pipes that are absolutely necessary to operate the technology in the room. Sewage pipes, fresh water pipes, gas and heating pipes, and pipes for fuel or steam SHOULD NOT be routed through the space.

Supply lines outside a technical infrastructure room SHOULD be protected against accidental damage.

Irrespective of the building regulations pertaining to fire protection requirements that apply to a technical infrastructure room, all room-forming components, as well as doors and windows, SHOULD be equally smoke-tight. They SHOULD resist fire and smoke for at least 30 minutes. Fire loads in the vicinity of cable trays SHOULD be avoided.

A technical infrastructure room SHOULD NOT be located in close proximity to other rooms with combustible materials in quantities exceeding typical office use.

A lightning and overvoltage protection concept should be developed and implemented in accordance with the principle of energetic coordination (see DIN EN 62305). A technical infrastructure room SHOULD be classified in accordance with lightning protection zone 2 (LPZ 2) at minimum. The lightning and overvoltage protection devices SHOULD be checked regularly to ensure they are fit for purpose and replaced if necessary.

The equipment that should be connected to a UPS SHOULD be checked. If a UPS is required, the backup time of the UPS SHOULD make it possible to shut down all the supplied components safely. Consideration SHOULD be given to the ageing of batteries in UPS systems.

If there are relevant changes, the capacity of existing UPS systems SHOULD be checked. UPS batteries SHOULD be kept within the required temperature range.

A UPS SHOULD be serviced and checked for functionality at regular intervals. For this purpose, the maintenance intervals provided by the manufacturer SHOULD be observed.

At minimum, the recommended intervals and guidelines for inspection and maintenance recommended by the system manufacturer or those specified in standards SHOULD be followed for all components of physical and technical infrastructure. Cable and pipe penetrations through fire and smoke compartment boundary walls SHOULD be inspected to ensure that the partitions have the required approval for the purpose at hand and remain intact. Inspections and maintenance MUST be appropriately recorded.

Within the respective building, a technical infrastructure room SHOULD be located in a place that is not exposed to internal or external hazards such as rain, water, or sewage. On floors above ground level, care SHOULD be taken to ensure that the room is not heated by solar radiation. If the room is located on the top floor of the building, care SHOULD be taken to ensure that water cannot enter through the roof.

A technical infrastructure room SHOULD be designed redundantly. Both rooms SHOULD have a dedicated electrical sub-distribution that is directly supplied by the low-voltage main distribution panel (LVMDP). Both rooms SHOULD be assigned to different fire zones and, if necessary, have their own respective ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

A technical infrastructure room SHOULD be windowless. If there are windows, they SHOULD be adequately secured against intrusion from the outside depending on the storey of their location. If, in addition to windows and doors, there are other openings necessary for operations (such as ventilation ducts), these SHOULD have the same protection as the room envelope.

Intrusion detection systems SHOULD be used in line with VdS class C (according to VdS Guideline 2311). All required doors, windows, and other protected openings SHOULD be monitored via the intrusion system for closure, locking, and break-in. Any windows SHOULD always be closed.

The resistance class of room-forming components, windows, and doors SHOULD be adapted to the security needs of the room in question. The quality of locks, locking cylinders, and security fittings SHOULD correspond to the resistance class of the door at hand.

In a technical infrastructure room, there SHOULD be a two-line power supply that runs all the way from the low-voltage main distribution board (LVMDS) to the consumer. These power supplies SHOULD be located in separate fire zones. The LVMDS SHOULD be redundant in operation.

An organisation's energy supply SHOULD be supplemented by an emergency power system (EPS). The fuel supply for the EPS SHOULD be checked regularly. The EPS SHOULD also maintained at regular intervals. Load and functional tests, as well as test runs under load, SHOULD be conducted when performing maintenance.

Ventilation and cooling systems SHOULD be designed to be redundant in operation. It SHOULD be ensured that these systems are regularly maintained.

In case of very high protection needs, maintenance redundancy SHOULD also be ensured.

Room-forming components, as well as doors, windows, and ventilation flaps, SHOULD resist fire and smoke for at least 90 minutes. The supply lines SHOULD guarantee a functional integrity of at least 90 minutes.

In case of very high protection needs, the room envelope SHOULD be designed as a separate fire zone. Fire dampers controlled by smoke detectors SHOULD be installed in ventilation ducts. Cable trays SHOULD be routed through separate fire zones until they enter the room.

In case of very high protection needs, an early fire detection system and an automatic extinguishing system SHOULD be provided. Fire and smoke detectors SHOULD be connected to the fire alarm control panel. The early fire detection system and the automatic extinguishing system SHOULD be connected to the two-line power supply with UPS and EPS.

Suitable monitoring equipment SHOULD be installed and operated that can detect prohibitively high currents on the protective conductor system and thus on cable shields (as well as potentially disturbing harmonic oscillations) and flag them in a suitable location for follow-up and remedial action.