E lighting

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e57

e57

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San Francisco, CA
Is there - or was there a code for emergency illumination to be from a local lighting circuit if no seperate source is supplied? i.e. Emergency ballasts in 2x4's in an office and switched...
 
Em ltg ckts

Em ltg ckts

NEC 700.12 (F)
...the same branch circuit as that serving normal lighting in the area and connected ahead of any local switches.
 
mcclary's electrical said:
It's still the same, it comes off the unswitched side of lighting circuit. If more than 3 circuits lighting a single area, you then CAN feed the E-lights seperately.
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That is if you CAN... These today were all E-ballasts - which had to be from the same circuit as the timer/motion panel that fed them and the phase that the light in each area was on...

But yesturday during an inspection I had to go find a house panel to kill the exit and other E-lights that were put in during a core build out by someone else. Rather than taking them from the units panel - they went for the house panels 3 floors away - which serve nothing else there... I had to go down the stairs in pitch black with a Bic to light the way and go find the CB... And then, low and behold they did not seem as if they were enough lumens, so I had to add a bunch more today... (And add a strobe here and there...)
 
mcclary's electrical said:
It's still the same, it comes off the unswitched side of lighting circuit. If more than 3 circuits lighting a single area, you then feed the E-lights seperately.
Click to expand...

how so. ETC unison for example, you will have say a 150A feeder into the cabinet and 24 20A dimmer circuits coming out. Where does your E-light circuit come from? Tap a small subpanel off the feeder to the dimmer cabinet?
 
cadpoint said:
It should be on the house panel...
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The E-lights in the unit - should be off of the unit panel. The prospective tenant has no access to the house panel, and the house panel serves no lighting in the unit. While the house panel serves more than 3 circuits of 'house' lighting - it serves no part of the floor this unit is even on, or the other two... The floor this unit is on - has a house panel with no emergency lighting at all, but serves all of the lighting on that floor in the common areas - which is how I figured this out. (Shutting of the lighting on that floor - from that panel should have had E-lights on... - instead - it was pitch black. ;)) And when I did find it - it was not locked on... All of the exit and egress lighting is on a single circuit from a panel near the MDP in a locked room, the panels for house lighting are everywhere - and as such should have exit and egress for the areas of lighting they actually serve.

[QUOTE='05NEC/'07CEC]
~The branch circuit feeding the unit equipment shall be the same branch circuit as that serving the normal lighting in the area and connected ahead of any local switches. The branch circuit that feeds unit equipment shall be clearly identified at the distribution panel. Emergency luminaires (illumination fixtures) that obtain power from a unit equipment and are not part of the unit equipment shall be wired to the unit equipment as required by 700.9 and by one of the wiring methods of Chapter 3.​
Exception: In a separate and uninterrupted area supplied by a minimum of three normal lighting circuits, a separate branch circuit for unit equipment shall be permitted if ​
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it originates from the same panelboard as that of the normal lighting circuits and is provided with a lock-on feature.​

[/QUOTE]
 
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