I have a situation where the owner has requested to shut-off all the lighting panels to test the light that are powered by emergency inverter system. It's a large warehouse project with five lighting panels. The current design show each highbay fixture is controlled by integrated individual occupancy sensor. The emergency fixture is powered by normal and emergency circuit via Bodine GTD (generator transfer device), so if this device senses the loss of normal power then it will transfer to emergency circuit from the inverter. The user wants to test these lights by shutting off the power to all lighting panels. My thought was to provide a lighting contactor (100A, 480V) a head of the each 100A MCB lighting panel and provide a remote control switch to open and close the contactor for testing purposes and locate these switches in the inverter room. My question is; is there any issue with this approach? What kind of switch needed for this application to open and close the contactor? Your help is really appreciated. Thanks, in advance
Lighting Contactor Wiring
- Thread starter faresos
- Start date
- Status
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
My brain must be fuzzy, why can't you just turn the breaker off?
Thats what we have suggested but they don't want to walk around the warehouse to turn off these 5 panels, they just want to do it from single location. Its a large warehouse and I guess they don't like to walk
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Thats what we have suggested but they don't want to walk around the warehouse to turn off these 5 panels, they just want to do it from single location. Its a large warehouse and I guess they don't like to walk
Easy money, I like it. 100 amp contactors are not cheap, but so be it. Give them what they want.
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Any switch rated for the coil loads would be fine.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
A single three way switch for one or all of the contactors if they are the latching type.
hillbilly1
Senior Member
- Location
- North Georgia mountains
- Occupation
- Owner/electrical contractor
They maybe wary of 70E.
Wouldn't it be easier and simpler to just wire the contactors to the normal power input to the GTD relays?
Then they wouldn't have to shut off power to the entire plant just to test the emergency lights. And you could use 20A contactors.
Then they wouldn't have to shut off power to the entire plant just to test the emergency lights. And you could use 20A contactors.
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Good point. Panels are 480V.
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
I believe OP said it was a warehouse, not a plant.
Dedicated panels for lighting are not that uncommon, especially for newer buildings.
- Location
- Massachusetts
This may be a code violation, you cannot switch egress lighting unless it comes on automatically during a power failure.
jumper
Senior Member
- Location
- 3 Hr 2 Min from Winged Horses
Now I am confused. I thought OP just wanted to kill power for the regular source so that the EM/back up source would kick in.
I cannot imagine that occupancy sensors control the EM source.
Yes, thats the whole purpose of the GTD device; We need to switch the emergency fixture at normal condition, if we lose normal power then the GTD will sense the normal power loss (from unswitched circuit) then it will transfer to the emergency source.
- Location
- Massachusetts
I am still not following you.
When the GTD switches over to emergency will the fixture light regardless of no one in view of the occ sensor?
- Status