NFPA 101: How is occupant load determined by the Life Safety Code?

Greg Harrington, Principal Engineer of Building Fire Protection and co-editor of the Life Safety Code Handbook, discusses how occupant load is determined in the Life Safety Code.
"How is occupant load determined by the Life Safety Code and what is it that occupant load used for? Occupant load in the life safety code is determined by one of two ways. The first way is you can determine your occupant load based on factors that are specified by the code. Occupant load factors that are given in terms of sq feet per person or sq meters per person and you would apply that factor based on the use of the space over the area of that building or a portion of that building. So it's simply a calculation you would do based on the area of the building or a portion of the building.
The other way that occupant load can be determined is by counting the actual number of occupant s that you would expect within a building or a portion of the building.
The occupant load is then the greater of those 2 values. Whether its the calculated number or the actual number of occupants."

[@davodavico]

As a rule of thumb: what about 1 person per 100sqf.? ..Ex.building total square feet is 17,000. That would be 17,000/100=170 persons allowed in the building as max.

[@1921Bella]

I NEED TO USE THE USE TABLE 7.3.1.2. WHERE TO FIND THIS TABLE?

[@satoruaizawa9849]

Maybe, the new engineers will not understand the NFPA 101 requirements unless they receive a seminar. About 10-years is necessary to good handle NFPA 101 well.

[@DanBollard]

How many years to speak English well?