emergency lights commerical bathrooms

[mikedeese177]

do you have to have e-lights in bathroom commerical

 

[George Stolz]

Not by the NEC (or the IBC either, unless I'm mistaken).

It is probably a good design choice.

 

[dlhoule]

None that I am aware of either, though in some circumstances; they are a good idea.

 

[dlhoule]

George, if you keep putting disclaimers in your replies, how am I ever going to catch you in a mistake?:-?

 

[cadpoint]

Egress

Egress

I'm thinking no
I'm think'n 90^, once one exits a space, one exits to a second
means of egress, I believe ... "memory please don't fail me now" ...
Oh course, per space of the individual application could be well founded....

 

[cowboyjwc]

I agree with George.

We had a council member in a restroom when the power went out on night. They lodged a complaint with us and of course we had to follow up on it with out any backing. The owner said that it was pitch black in there with the lights off and decided that the right thing to do would be to put lights in there.

It does say in the UBC that the entire path of travel to the exit must be illuminated with at least one foot candle at the floor.

 

[kkwong]

John- not to argue, I agree and have in the past recommeded e-lights in large bathrooms, but doesn't that requirement only apply to occupancies holding 100 or more? Unless we're talking about a restroom at an arena, I think it is just good practice to have the e-light there in place.

 

[cowboyjwc]

It's a little more complicated than that. It's required when the building is occupied and that could be the light coming through the window. At 50 or more it's required to have battery backup and there are some other times it's required such as if two exits are required, etc.

You have to remember that 50 is an assembly per the building code and 100 is an assembly per the NEC.

Again I was agreeing with George that it's not required in the bathrooms, but it's not a bad idea.

 

[kkwong]

True...I was also thinking of CBC 1003.2.9.2 requires e-lights at 100+ for other occ's. I neglected to take into account the 50 for an A-3. My bad...

 

[ryan_618]

IBC requires emergency lighting and exit signage only in areas that are required to have two exits. Unless your bathroom is about the same size as a good sized house, they are not required.

 

[JohnJ0906]

Strangely, we did a dentist office last year and we put e-lights in the bathrooms. I (we) was under the impression that "public" bathrooms had to have e-lights. :-?

Of course, this was in Baltimore City :roll: , land of craziness. Inspector wouldn't allow us to add the cubic inches from mud rings to the box cubic inches, and refused to tell us why not.

 

[realolman]

Where I work guys will ask if you know how a blind man goes to the bathroom, and then turn the lights off when you're in the hopper. I'm tellin' you what, it is dark in there. You can't see nothin. then you start to imagine that bugs and stuff are crawlin on you..... I'm surprised there isn't some kinda requirement for e-lights. Some of those facilities are pretty large and elaborate.

 

[LarryFine]

Where I work guys will ask if you know how a blind man goes to the bathroom, and then turn the lights off when you're in the hopper.

Ask them back if they know how a blind man knows when he's finished wiping.

 

[realolman]

And what will I answer?

This is such a high class exchange. I'm really proud to be a part of it.