Emergency Lighting in a emergency operations center.

[sceepe]

I have a new facility that will be used as an emergency operations center. As such, the whole place will be backed up by a diesel genset. I plan on dividing the loads per article 700 so that I have a separate transfer switch for the Article 700 loads (which in this case is only the fire alarm and emergency lights). My question is, could I just say all the lights are emergency lights and power all the lights from the article 700 xfer switch? 700.17(1) seems to allow this. If so, this would allow me to avoid having a separate conduit system for one or two lights in each space as you would have when all of the lighting is not backed up by the generator. One problem may be switching the lights in compliance with 700.20. If every light in the building is classified as an emergency light, how do you switch them? Can I say that the building occupants are all "authorized persons"?

 

[necnotevenclose]

Per NEC 2005 700.16 I believe all the lights can be switched by one xfer switch. Also depending on your lighting control system (assuming you have one) most manufacueres can provide a feed that senses when normal power is lost and can transfer over to emergency power. As for the controls, again assuming you have lighting controls, there are low voltage switches with key locks so that only authorized personel can access them. I would suggest contacting Douglas lighting controls or a similar company.

 

[Nick]

What I have done in a similar situation is use battery back up ballasts in the emergency fixtures. That way you comply with your emergency lighting requirements while the rest of the facility can be wired per article 702 and only one transfer switch.