Calvino4
New member
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
I have been an Buildings Electrical Design Engineer for about a year and a half now and theres something thats always bugged me about lighting controls that I was hoping to get some input on. My company has an independent lighting department that I am not a part of so my experience on this is a bit limited.
I've seen many scenarios where we've generally provided power circuiting of lighting fixtures that is somewhat independent of the controls zones. While we try not to break up a single control zone onto multiple power circuits, we tend to put multiple controls zones on a single power circuit. These zones consist of a variety of different controls types. For example we may put a room with 2 fixtures controlled by a wall timer switch, a room with 5 fixtures controlled by an occupancy sensor and manual override switch, and a room with 4 fixtures controlled by (2) 3-way switches all on the same electrical circuit since the load is well within the NEC 80% loading rule. Each of these rooms would be controlled separately by the controls method specified.
This is probably a rudimentary but I'm having trouble visualizing that this wouldn't cause an issue. If the rooms are on the same electrical circuit, wouldn't the controls of one room affect all of the lighting on the same circuit? I've had individuals tell me that its all about how you wire it but I can't really imagine how you could wire it that they could all be controlled independently.
If this is generally not an issue, are there any particular instances that would cause a problem? I know that some dimming applications need to be on dedicated circuits unless the dimming controls module allows for multiple independent dimming control zones. Are there other controls devices that would generally require a dedicated circuit?
I know this is a bit of a broad question but any input you can provide on the subjust would be helpful.
Thank you.
I've seen many scenarios where we've generally provided power circuiting of lighting fixtures that is somewhat independent of the controls zones. While we try not to break up a single control zone onto multiple power circuits, we tend to put multiple controls zones on a single power circuit. These zones consist of a variety of different controls types. For example we may put a room with 2 fixtures controlled by a wall timer switch, a room with 5 fixtures controlled by an occupancy sensor and manual override switch, and a room with 4 fixtures controlled by (2) 3-way switches all on the same electrical circuit since the load is well within the NEC 80% loading rule. Each of these rooms would be controlled separately by the controls method specified.
This is probably a rudimentary but I'm having trouble visualizing that this wouldn't cause an issue. If the rooms are on the same electrical circuit, wouldn't the controls of one room affect all of the lighting on the same circuit? I've had individuals tell me that its all about how you wire it but I can't really imagine how you could wire it that they could all be controlled independently.
If this is generally not an issue, are there any particular instances that would cause a problem? I know that some dimming applications need to be on dedicated circuits unless the dimming controls module allows for multiple independent dimming control zones. Are there other controls devices that would generally require a dedicated circuit?
I know this is a bit of a broad question but any input you can provide on the subjust would be helpful.
Thank you.