Exterior Emergency Lighting

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John D. Reidenbaugh

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A number of inspectors have flagged us on installing an exterior emergency
fixture at exit doors (PA requires exterior illumination at points of exits)
that has only one lamp. They site NEC 700.16 that indicates "Emergency
lighting systems shall be designed and installed so that the failure of any
individual lighting element such as the burning out of a light bulb, cannot
leave in total darkness any space that requires emergency illumination".
The fixtures that have come into questions are those that are connected to
an emergency generator. However, it is common practice on facilities that
utilize emergency battery units to install one remote head on the exterior
by an exit door. I have never had an inspector question that installation.
There are also combination exit lights with a battery feature that have two
heads on the interior and are capable of supporting one remote head on the
exterior.

I contend that the article was based on interior egress areas and most
interior areas do have more than one emergency light source.

I would appreciate any insight that anyone has on this issue.
 
I'm not in PA, but IBC is common here, so exterior egress lights go on most of the commercial projects I design. My office standard is to always call out dual head exterior heads, based on NEC 700.16. In my opinion running an exterior head from the same unit equipment battery pack that supplies the interior emergency lights inside violates NEC 700.12(F), so I always call out either a central system from Signtex (their LED system works very well) or use a dedicated battery pack for outside that's fed from an outdoor lighting circuit. Very few generators on the buildings I design tenant improvements for.

I know that the single exterior head fed from the indoor exit sign/emergency light combo is common and is frequently accepted, but I don't think it meets Code.

Martin
 
hmspe said:
I know that the single exterior head fed from the indoor exit sign/emergency light combo is common and is frequently accepted, but I don't think it meets Code.

Martin
Click to expand...

If it didn't meet code, it wouldn't pass.
 
sparkyrick said:
If it didn't meet code, it wouldn't pass.
Click to expand...

I agree with hmspe, it doesn't meet code unless the normal exterior lighting is off the same circuit as the interior emergency light.

It also passed here for a while.

As far as the OP concerning an emergency fixture with only 1 lamp, if you have a separate normal lighting fixture then you comply. However if your normal lighting fixture also supplies the emergency lighting, then you need 2 lamps in that fixture.

Jim T
 
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