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Not to be confused with Boiler Room (Business)''
thumb|200px|right|Mechanical room in a large office building.
A mechanical room, boiler room or plant room is a room or space in a building dedicated to the mechanical equipment and its associated electrical equipment, as opposed to rooms intended for human occupancy or storage. Unless a building is served by a
centralized heating plant, the size of the mechanical room is usually proportional to the size of the building. A small building or home may have at most a
utility room but in large buildings mechanical rooms can be of considerable size, often requiring multiple rooms throughout the building, or even occupying one or more complete floors (see:
mechanical floor).
Equipment
Mechanical rooms typically house the following equipment:
*
Air handlers
*
Boilers
*
Chillers
*
Heat exchangers
*
Water heaters and
tanks
*
Water pumps (for domestic, heating/cooling, and firefighting water)
*Main distribution
piping and
valves
*
Sprinkler distribution piping and pumps
*Back-up
electrical generators
*
Elevator machinery
*Other
HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) equipment
Equipment in mechanical rooms is often operated and maintained by a
stationary engineer or a maintenance technician. Modern buildings use
control systems to manage
HVAC cycles, lighting, communications, and life safety equipment. Often, the control system hardware is located in the mechanical room and monitored or accessed remotely.
Rooms with only electrical or electronic equipment are not considered mechanical rooms but are instead called
electrical rooms.
See also
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Noise pollution
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Engine room
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Electrical room
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Steamfitter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mechanical Room
Category:Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
Category:Rooms
