Emergency + Normal Lighting in an Operating Room

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lile001

Senior Member
Location
Midwest
I have understood it is common practice to provide some emergency power and some normal power to lighting in an operating room (plus some battery backed equipment per 517.63) I can't find any code reference in NEC or NFPA 99 that specifically says that 50% of the lights in an OR must be on emergency power and 50% on normal power. Is this a code requirement, or just a practice used in some hospitals?
 

Mike01

Senior Member
Location
MidWest
location

location

in some states they have there own healthcare requirements in addition to national codes and standards.
 

david

Senior Member
Location
Pennsylvania
III. Essential Electrical System
517.25 Scope.
The essential electrical system for these facilities shall comprise a system capable of supplying a limited amount of lighting and power service, which is considered essential for life safety and orderly cessation of procedures during the time normal electrical service is interrupted for any reason. This includes clinics, medical and dental offices, outpatient facilities, nursing homes, limited care facilities, hospitals, and other health care facilities serving patients.

I think the key is orderly cessation of procedures during the time normal electrical service is interrupted for any reason. I think also is key would be the location and design of the unit equipment to the task being performed. I don?t know of a simple answer I feel this issued would be between the electrical engineer and the management of the Health Care facility
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
I'm not sure there is any code that says you have to include lights from the normal power branch. 517.19 says you need branch circuits from both normal and emergency branches, but it doesn't say lighting has to be included on each circuit.

So I think you could run all the lights from the emergency branch, and comply with the code. I also think that would be a very bad design.

What if a circuit breaker tripped on the load side of the transfer switch? Then all your lighting would be out (except the battery light.)

It's kind of hard to explain why an OR got plunged into darkness when the rest of the hospital is operating normally on utility power. I've seen this happen with other firm's designs.

Even better than emergency and normal power for the lights are two separate transfer switches with two separate critical branches. You might even consider running them from two separate generators.

Steve
 

anbm

Senior Member
No codes require 50%N and 50%E lights in OR or any patient rooms. The idea is when loosing normal power, doctor still have enough emergency lighting to do his job. Also think about size/cost of generator /ATS if you put too many load on emergency branches.
 
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