Is an exterior emerg. egress light required at each door that leads outside the bldg?

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mike9999

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Is an exterior emergency egress light required at each door that leads outside of the building?

Also, most of the exterior wet location egress light I found are ugly. Can anybody suggest some lights that appeals to an architect or owner?
 
What do you mean "emergency egress light"? There must be a light at all exterior exits, but I am not sure what you mean by "emergency". There are thousands of light fixtures available that would be suitable for the application; from the ubiguitous "jelly jar" bracket light to decorative lights costing many thousands of dollars, surely you can find something that you like.
 
Mike,

I don't believe it's an NEC issue but a building code issue. We're running into that a lot here in NJ. A remote emerg. light just outside the exit door run off the combo exit/emerg light unit.

Phil
Gold Star Electric
New Jersey
 
Mike, are you talking about exit lights. Stairway lights. Or the lights that are required at the outside of the door ( you did say wet location). The emergency lights will need a back-up power source. The light outside doesn't need to be on a back-up system in most cases ( might want to look deeper if its a stairway where someone could fall to their death ).

Try the life safety code.
 
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The light outside doesn't need to be on a back-up system in most cases
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Actually if the building requires two exits then the exterior lighting at the exit dischage needs to have emergency power. This is a building code requirement, what I have referenced comes from the IBC 1006.3 #4. Local requirements may differ.

Also remember that 700.12(F) requires that if you use unit equipment to meet the emergency requirement, then the unit equipment be fed from the same branch circuit that feeds the normal lighting in the area. There is an exception for areas that are fed from more then 3 circuits.

Chris
 
raider1 said:
Actually if the building requires two exits then the exterior lighting at the exit dischage needs to have emergency power. This is a building code requirement, what I have referenced comes from the IBC 1006.3 #4. Local requirements may differ.

Also remember that 700.12(F) requires that if you use unit equipment to meet the emergency requirement, then the unit equipment be fed from the same branch circuit that feeds the normal lighting in the area. There is an exception for areas that are fed from more then 3 circuits.

Chris
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Two exits? You might be confusing this with exit sign requirements. Most building codes require the means of egress (path) to be lighted at all times when the building is occupied. If the occpancy load is over a given number, 100 in my case, then the lighting has to have 90min emergency backup from a battery or generator.

[edit] The trouble is, they include the outdoor path "to the public way" but don't define what that is.

If you use a central inverter, you could then pick almost any of the usual fixtures, regardless of whether they offer a battery.
 
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Two exits? You might be confusing this with exit sign requirements.
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No, what I am tring to say is that if a building requires two exits, due to occupant load, then emergency lighting is required at the exterior of exit discharge components. Again I am not talking about required illumination, that is required for all paths of egress, but just the requirement for emergency lighting.

Chris
 
If you're governed by the IBC, Chris is correct. Further, he correctly points out that you probably can't install a remote head on the exterior powered from the interior exit/emergency fixture and still comply as a general rule. The exterior emergency fixture needs to sense the exterior lighting circuit status, not the interior lighting circuit, unless by some chance they are the same circuit.

Jim T
 
sparkie001 said:
[edit] The trouble is, they include the outdoor path "to the public way" but don't define what that is.
QUOTE]

In the 1997 UBC which we're on it does have a definition of public way. There is also an exception that alllows you to go to an area of safe dispersal. I don't have my UBC here at home or I'd give you the location.
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