Life safety lighting in a hospital

[dyna1]

We are installing rows of lighting in a hospital. The lights in the rows alternate between normal power and life safety.Can you pull both normal and LS power circuit wires thru the ro of fixtures? Or do the circuits need to remain seperate?

 

[roger]

No, you can not pull them together in these fixture rows, see 517.30(C)

(C) Wiring Requirements

(1) Separation from Other Circuits The life safety branch and critical branch of the emergency system shall be kept entirely independent of all other wiring and equipment and shall not enter the same raceways, boxes, or cabinets with each other or other wiring.
Wiring of the life safety branch and the critical branch shall be permitted to occupy the same raceways, boxes, or cabinets of other circuits not part of the branch where such wiring complies with one of the following:

(1) Is in transfer equipment enclosures

(2) Is in exit or emergency luminaires (lighting fixtures) supplied from two sources

(3) Is in a common junction box attached to exit or emergency luminaires (lighting fixtures) supplied from two sources

(4) Is for two or more emergency circuits supplied from the same branch

Roger

 

[ramdiesel3500]

At first, I did not understand why Roger stated "no" when 517.30(C)(3) seemed to say "yes". But now I realize that in order to pull wiring through the row, it will have to travel through "NON-EMERGENCY" fixtures to get there and that would be a violation!
Good post and good reply! Thanks! I learned that I had mis-read this code rule in the past!

 

[steve66]

At first, I did not understand why Roger stated "no" when 517.30(C)(3) seemed to say "yes". But now I realize that in order to pull wiring through the row, it will have to travel through "NON-EMERGENCY" fixtures to get there and that would be a violation!
Good post and good reply! Thanks! I learned that I had mis-read this code rule in the past!

It would also be a violation if the normal power goes through the emergency fixtures (unless you have double ballasts -one on em. and one on normal).

Steve