Emergency/Egress Lights to be turn off

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anbm

Senior Member
Can the emergency/egress lights (with emergency battery backup, the battery is not switched) to be turned off
when the building is not occupied? (After working hour, 7PM for an example, this can save the owner some
dollars)
 
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S'mise

Senior Member
Location
Michigan
Can the emergency/egress lights (with emergency battery backup, the battery is not switched) to be turned off
when the building is not occupied? (After working hour, 7PM for an example, this can save the owner some
dollars)

I would think not. Who is to say someone would have/need to be there after hours. (fireman, police..)
 

hurk27

Senior Member
I think the problem is going to be that most emergency lights with battery back up are not design to be turned off, removing the line voltage will do nothing but make the lights come on battery power, the other problem is the battery charger need to maintain a float charge or it will shorten the life of the battery, it does not take that much energy to maintain a float charge and I'll bet if even turning off a hundred of these you would see much of a change in the electric bill, the bad thing about this idea is it requires someone to remember to turn it back on every day (unless a timer was used) that if it is not a violation should be.
 

anbm

Senior Member
What type of establishment is this and how is zoned/classified under the IBC?

Business, class B. From cited code section, my understanding is we can turn emergency lights off if the building space is not occupied...?
After hour could fall into this case, if someones come in at night, they can flip the switch to turn the emergency lights back on?
 
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anbm

Senior Member
I think the problem is going to be that most emergency lights with battery back up are not design to be turned off, removing the line voltage will do nothing but make the lights come on battery power, the other problem is the battery charger need to maintain a float charge or it will shorten the life of the battery, it does not take that much energy to maintain a float charge and I'll bet if even turning off a hundred of these you would see much of a change in the electric bill, the bad thing about this idea is it requires someone to remember to turn it back on every day (unless a timer was used) that if it is not a violation should be.

Sorry, let I clarify this, for example if the building has 2x4, compact fluorescent light come with both normal and emergency battery ballasts and some of these lights serve
as emergency/egress lighting. We want to switch the circuit that feed normal ballasts inside the lights (maybe by a regular toggle switch), the emergency ballast will be never switched, contractor know how to wire this, and emergency ballasts only kick on when building lost power or someone flips the breaker that feeds that light.
 

hurk27

Senior Member
Sorry, let I clarify this, for example if the building has 2x4, compact fluorescent light come with both normal and emergency battery ballasts and some of these lights serve
as emergency/egress lighting. We want to switch the circuit that feed normal ballasts inside the lights (maybe by a regular toggle switch), the emergency ballast will be never switched, contractor know how to wire this, and emergency ballasts only kick on when building lost power or someone flips the breaker that feeds that light.

Then there is no problem as many are wired like this, the only thing is they are required to be fed from the same circuit or it will damage the ballast.

This requirment is in the instruction that comes with the EMG ballast
 

ron

Senior Member
This would be a problem in NYC and when the new IBC is adopted in your jurisdiction for high-rises.

Ambient light is needed to charge the electroluminescent strips that are put in the egress paths.
 
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