EMERGENCY LIGHTING

[criselect]

Has anybody had inspector have them put emegency light unit and exit sign. On a seperate circuit from the room lighting circuit.

 

[ken44]

Re: EMERGENCY LIGHTING

It would depend on whether or not the emergency and exit lights are self-contained battery back up units or whether they rely on an emergency power source. If there is an emergency circuit within the room being fed by an emergency generator or battery field-inverter, then I can see where you would need to connect to one of those circuits respectively, however, if they are battery back up, then I cant see any problems other than making sure they are connected to the line side of the circuit to avoid them from being switched on and off.

 

[megawire]

Re: EMERGENCY LIGHTING

Originally posted by criselect:
Has anybody had inspector have them put emegency light unit and exit sign. On a seperate circuit from the room lighting circuit.

I have had many debates about this one. In order to maintain the integrity of the room lighting circuit you must insure that the emergency lighting circuit is maintained on the same leg. If the lights go out in one section of the building you must have the emergency kick on auto. On exit signs, the local fire dept. may have jurisdiction pertaining to a seperate circuit.

[ April 16, 2004, 09:34 AM: Message edited by: megawire ]

 

[nvcape]

Re: EMERGENCY LIGHTING

NEC 700.12(E) requires that the branch circuit feeding unit equipment to be the same branch as that serving normal lighting, unless there's a minimum of 3 normal circuits within the area. The intention is that if the normal lights get tripped off, they will get fixed. If only the emergency lights are on a circuit, and there's a circuit problem, it might not be quickly noticed.