commercial building stairwell lighting requirements

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sparkybr549

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I am new to this forum, and would appreciate any help. How many lumens/watts per sq.ft are required for stairwells in a commercial building. Are they considered as part of the minimum lighting requirements,
 
This section comes from the 2006 IBC.

1006.2 Illumination level. The means of egress illumination
level shall not be less than 1 foot-candle (11 lux) at the walking
surface level.
Click to expand...

A stairway is part of the means of egress, so this section applys to stairways.

I don't know what the local codes in your area are so this might be different. I would check with your local building department.

Chris
 
raider1 said:
This section comes from the 2006 IBC.
1006.2 Illumination level. The means of egress illumination level shall not be less than 1 foot-candle (11 lux) at the walking surface level.
Click to expand...
A stairway is part of the means of egress, so this section applys to stairways.
Click to expand...
Are you talking about normal usage, or during a power failure?
 
LarryFine said:
Are you talking about normal usage, or during a power failure?
Click to expand...

The section that I quoted is for normal usage.

The section on emergency power requires that the inital emergency power illumination, for the means of egress be at least an average of 1 foot-candle and a minimum of 0.1 foot-candle measured along the path of egress at floor level.

Chris
 
raider1 said:
The section that I quoted is for normal usage.

The section on emergency power requires that the inital emergency power illumination, for the means of egress be at least an average of 1 foot-candle and a minimum of 0.1 foot-candle measured along the path of egress at floor level.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Here in Richmond, they measure for a minimum of 1 ft-cdl at the floor for the entire egress pathway during power failure, not 0.1. Could they have been mis-inspecting all these years?
 
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For normal usage I usually use about 15-20 footcandles for stairways. When someone enters the stairway from a brightly lit area the 15-20 fc will be adequate and not appear too dark. If the stairway is part of the egress path then design for 1 fc throughout for emergency egress.
 
LarryFine said:
Interesting. Here in Richmond, they measure for a minimum of 1 ft-cdl at the floor for the entire egress pathway during power failure, not 0.1. Could they have been mis-inspecting all these years?
Click to expand...

Here is the text of the 2006 IBC for the required emergency illumination for the means of egress:

1006.4 Performance of system. Emergency lighting facilities
shall be arranged to provide initial illumination that is at least
an average of 1 foot-candle (11 lux) and a minimum at any
point of 0.1 foot-candle (1 lux) measured along the path of
egress at floor level. Illumination levels shall be permitted to
decline to 0.6 foot-candle (6 lux) average and a minimum at
any point of 0.06 foot-candle (0.6 lux) at the end of the emergency
lighting time duration. A maximum-to-minimum illumination
uniformity ratio of 40 to 1 shall not be exceeded.
Click to expand...

Are you under the IBC in Richmond?

Chris
 
Thanks

Thanks

raider1 said:
This section comes from the 2006 IBC.



A stairway is part of the means of egress, so this section applys to stairways.

I don't know what the local codes in your area are so this might be different. I would check with your local building department.

Chris
Click to expand...

Thanks Cris for your information. This will help me forward to Supervisor, and is appreciated. Sparkybr549
 
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