You are starting work on a new high school. The architect has provided you with a telecommunications room located between the kitchen cold store room and the automotive and welding shops. What…

Working with the architect to find a new location is the correct and most cost-effective solution because placing a telecommunications room between a kitchen cold store (compressor EMI) and a welding shop (arc welding EMI) violates structured cabling best practices for EMI-free telecommunications spaces. Mitigating EMI after room placement is far more expensive and less reliable than choosing an appropriate location during design. BICSI and ANSI/TIA-569 specify that telecommunications spaces must be separated from known sources of electromagnetic and radio frequency interference.

Insisting only the welding shop be moved does not address the EMI risk from the kitchen cold store compressors and fails to fully resolve the improper room placement.

Filing a complaint with the client is not a constructive technical solution and does not resolve the EMI hazard posed by the adjacent mechanical and industrial spaces.

Shielded cable tray in the room and outer halls is insufficient to mitigate the intense EMI generated by arc welding equipment and refrigeration compressors at close proximity.

Requesting shielding around compressors and welding units is impractical, prohibitively expensive, and not a recognized standard solution for protecting telecommunications infrastructure from EMI.