rick hart
Senior Member
- Location
- Dallas Texas
I am trying to determine if lights connected to the Life Safety Branch of an Emergency System that also have batteries installed are subject to the 1.5 hour testing required by the Life Safety Code (LSC 7.9.2). After looking at NEC Article 700, I am starting to think that the batteries on these lights are more of an Auxillary Power Supply- NEC 700.12(B)(5) since the Life Safety Branch is online within 10 seconds under the standby generator power source.
Reasoning that there is no requirement for battery lights in stairwells if the lights are connected to the Life Safety Branch of the Emergency System generator, the batteries are a higher level of back up than minimally required by code, therefore not required to be tested i.e. a failure of the batteries would not result in the system falling below minimum requirements.
Or, since the batteries are there in the first place, that makes them required, like it or not.
If there are any thoughts, or better yet if anyone can point to a specific code reference, I would really appreciate the help.
Reasoning that there is no requirement for battery lights in stairwells if the lights are connected to the Life Safety Branch of the Emergency System generator, the batteries are a higher level of back up than minimally required by code, therefore not required to be tested i.e. a failure of the batteries would not result in the system falling below minimum requirements.
Or, since the batteries are there in the first place, that makes them required, like it or not.
If there are any thoughts, or better yet if anyone can point to a specific code reference, I would really appreciate the help.