switched lighting in stairwell

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mshields

mshields

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Boston, MA
A colleague of mine was asked to put in keyed switches in a stairwell for the lighting. My reaction to this is, "what good could come from that" but what I'm not sure of is if it's a code violation. Does anyone know?

Thanks,

Mike

PS: I have no idea why this client wants this.
 
404.8(A) requires that switches be located such that they can be operated from a readily accessible place. It does not require that they be easy or convenient to operate. It think the client can get what they want.

Is this a school or other public building? Quite often, they don't want anyone other than the maintenance staff to be able to operate the lights.
 
If this is an egress stairway it must be illuminated while the building is occupied and if these are also 'emergency' lights they must come on during a power failure regardless of the building being occupied or not.
 
clarification

clarification

we don't normally switch them at all.

But a keyed switch implies a switch that will at some time be used. As such, what happens when someone unexpectedly comes into the building, tries to navigate the stairs without lights and gets injured as a result?
 
mshields said:
what happens when someone unexpectedly comes into the building, tries to navigate the stairs without lights and gets injured as a result?
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I am not a lawyer but have no problem pretending to be one on the Internet.;)

I think your client would be in an indefensible position.
 
mshields said:
. . . what happens when someone unexpectedly comes into the building, tries to navigate the stairs without lights and gets injured as a result?
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If that person has a key to the building, they should have a key to the light switches. Or by "unexpectedly" are you refering to a person who breaks into the building at night to steal computers?
 
charlie b said:
If that person has a key to the building, they should have a key to the light switches. Or by "unexpectedly" are you refering to a person who breaks into the building at night to steal computers?
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The thief would have grounds for a lawsuit for being injured from a fall in a poorly lit stairwell. I heard heard it happen in cases of residential burglary.
 
What I usually see is one light at each landing on 24/7 and the rest controlled by a timeclock for normal working hours with key switches to override the timeclock if it's not working correctly. And they are usually battery backed up also.

But it really depends on how many and what type of lights. Maybe get away with turning off every other light or leave one lamp on in each fixture 24/7.
 
mshields said:
A colleague of mine was asked to put in keyed switches in a stairwell for the lighting. My reaction to this is, "what good could come from that" but what I'm not sure of is if it's a code violation. Does anyone know?

Thanks,

Mike

PS: I have no idea why this client wants this.
Click to expand...

If these are emergency stairways and truly only used on an exception basis, would be an ideal candidate for infra-red/ultrasonic sensor activated lighting.
 
G._S._Ohm said:
Judging likelihoods of what may happen is up to you.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q="wrongful+death"+stair+light&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
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The results from that link are not exactly relevant.

I think using a keyed switch is fine as I've seen it used numerous times but in facilities or buildings that have a maint guy present during all operation hours and the maint guys come and open up the building early in the morning. It does depend a lot on the function of a building - if it's a bar or a university dorm then I guess I could see how some drunk moron might have an accident and sue.

Off topic: Charlie's comment about stealing computers reminded me of a site visit I did several months ago for a fire alarm modernization project at a middle school. I got stopped coming out by the cops asking who I was and what I was doing there - apparently some guy had robbed the place in broad daylight several times stealing computers from various classrooms!
 
bluesmoke...oops said:
If you break in, you deserve whatever harm you receive for doing so.
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Long story short and this is only the first case like this that I've heard of.

A guy was breaking into a farmer's shed. The farmer set up a shotgun aimed to kill but his wife persuaded him to lower the aim. The thief broke in and was shot and crippled. The farmer was ordered to pay the thief thousands of dollars. The thief's photo was in the paper, smirking, alongside of his cane. The other farmers took up a collection for the first farmer.
 
skeshesh said:
The results from that link are not exactly relevant.

I think using a keyed switch is fine as I've seen it used numerous times but in facilities or buildings that have a maint guy present during all operation hours and the maint guys come and open up the building early in the morning.
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Keyed switches were introduced as part of the duty of the walkaround security officers tools, long before they were replaced by camera installations all over. The Security guards would come around at scheduld times to survey the premises and turn the lights on while walking through the area and turn it off as they were leaving. In the last tour of the night, they would just leave them on.
 
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