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[1793]

Looking for some input.

Situation: Three story Historic building, divided into 6 Condo?s, 2 per floor. On each landing there is a luminaire in the hall, on all of the time. At each luminaire, WireMold is an Emergency light connected to that luminaire. The Condo association would like to turn the luminaires off during the day and only have them on at night. Luminaires are controlled by a breaker in the basement of the building.

Is it required to have these luminaires ?Lighted? all of the time? If so by whom, Building Code or NEC or ?

Looking for a way to control each luminaire and not disturb the Emergency Lighting. I have thought about installing at each luminaire a timer to control the luminaire only. If power is lost to the circuit then the Emergency Lighting would kick in.

Looking for options here.

Thanks as always.

 

[Bernard1599]

I believe it is Life Safety Code 101 that requires halls to be illuminated 24/7.

Regards

 

[220/221]

Photo celled motion sensor?

 

[1793]

Photo celled motion sensor?

Who makes one of those? I would need to have one for each floor.

 

[Dr.Sparks]

occupancy sensor would be my choice. http://www.lutron.com/products/OccSensors.aspx?cid=0&pid=Home

 

[1793]

occupancy sensor would be my choice.

Thought about that but was told they wanted the "hall" lighted during the "dark".

 

[growler]

I believe it is Life Safety Code 101 that requires halls to be illuminated 24/7.

Regards

I would think so. If they are useing regular incandescent lamps I would switch them to compact fluorescent lamps to increase life and reduce cost. Then just leave them on. The cost of having the lights on is not going to be anything close to the cost of a legal action.

 

[cowboyjwc]

Without looking it up, I would think that it would only have to be illuminated while the building is occupied. So I would think that a time clock, with possibly an over ride switch, would be ok.

 

[ishium 80439]

I don't know the exact requirements of hand but I am fairly confident that the local building dept could tell you how many fc need to be present at floor level.

In a similiar situation I installed a photocell to control the luminaire. Since there is already wiremold present would they object to another 2' stick coming out the other way? Or perhaps on the other side of the em light (use it as a raceway)? That way you would only need a small stub to get a box w/ a pc far enough away from the source of light.

 

[weressl]

I believe it is Life Safety Code 101 that requires halls to be illuminated 24/7.

Regards

It does not specify if it should be natural or artificial illumination, therefore whenever there is sufficient natural light available, artificial illumination is not required. I wish they would clarify what is the minimum acceptable illumination level.

 

[Jljohnson]

IF you find out that the luminaire is not required to be on and you are able to install controls for them, an X-10 technology switch and relay module would be a simple solution. If they must be left on then you could do the photo-cell thing.