Ligature Risk light switch

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john2016

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Electrical Engineer
I have a situation where we need to control a downlight in a separate shower room. The light switch can not be located inside the shower room because it would not part of the shower assembly (the room is tiled). This shower is located inside a hospital in a behavior psychiatric department so the intent of the project is replace all the ligature risk items to prevent the patients from harming themselves. We thought about locating the switch on the outside of the shower room but then there is a risk that a patient could walk by and turn off the light (there are no windows in the shower room). The downlight is a Failsafe tamper resistant downlight that is currently being installed so we can't order any new downlights. I thought about using a door contact switch about when the door closes the light would turn on and when it opens the light would turn off. But then they keep the door closed all the time so that wouldn't work because the light would always be on. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could control the downlight since we can't put a switch inside the shower room per NEC 404.4? Also, keeping in mind that this is a psychiatric department. Thanks.
 
Some sort of LV remote control device, like they use in pools and spas perhaps? Something like a "touch" panel or even a little air operated switch that then activates a relay somewhere else that turns on the light.

What's going to happen in this windowless room if the power fails? Seems like the kind of thing that might put someone with mental issues over the edge! A frosted window or transom in the door seems mandatory to my thinking...
 
Motion sensor or occupancy sensor with a 30-minute off delay? Leave it always on? What about a flow sensor off the plumbing or some sort of acoustic sensor that would turn the light on with any appreciable amount of noise? The latter would certainly be good if the light went off and a scared of the dark patient started screaming and freaking out... The light would come back on automatically
 
Thanks. I'm going to most likely have to put a key switch on the outside of the shower room. The staff doesn't like the existing key switches they have now because they tend to lose the key! I may spec a leviton key switch instead of the locking toggle (?) key switch so it should be easier to keep the key on a key ring.

The lights are on emergency power but as we know within 10 seconds can feel like an eternity for the emergency power switch over. Everything has to be ligature risk free so they can't hurt or hang themselves on something.
 

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hbiss said:
What the heck kind of plate do you use with that?

-Hal
Click to expand...

I'm sure they make a specific cover plates that light switch however absent of that, a coax wall plate would probably work in a pinch. I seem to recall that in jails that use a standard snap switch cover for similar keyed switches
 
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