Outdoor emergency lighting

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mshields

mshields

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Boston, MA
I?ve got an outdoor portico that needs emergency lighting. We?d like to accomplish this with down lights in this outdoor ceiling. We do not have an emergency generator. The distance from some of the fixtures that need to be on emergency to a warm dry location for a bodine ballast is over 30 feet. So to my knowledge, this rules out bodine ballasts.

One of our lighting reps recommended going with a low voltage MR16 fixture and have that come off of a typical 12V emergency lighting battery pack (without the heads). But this, it seems to me, by itself is not going to work because these lights are going to be on under normal conditions; not just in an emergency.

OK ? so maybe we should use a power supply via which the lights would ordinarily be powered and place the battery pack in parallel with this power supply. But in this instance, it seems to me that we?ve created a low voltage DC UPS. Don?t emergency UPS?s need to be listed for that purpose?

Do you think we can do this?

Bottom line, I?m looking to put emergency down lights outside of a facility that has no generator power and for which the distant from the building to the fixtures exceeds the max distances for the application of a bodine ballast. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
 
I hate installing battery packs in outdoor locations. It's never good. I'd suggest first challenging the need for emergency lighting at that location. The life safety code only requires emergency lighting to a "safe distance" from the building. (check appendix A) Usually one wall pack over the door can accomplish this with the battery mounted on the building interior.

If you really do need the emergency light there's a couple things to consider. If the battery pack is 30' away check the voltage drop for a 12V system. If the battery is exposed to the winter temperatures then you'll need one with a heating element. These can be as much as 100W per battery and needs to be considered in the circuit load. It's difficult to find performance information at cold temperatures from the battery manufacturers. They love to advertise that they're batterys work down to 0F or -20F but they don't say how well they work. Battery performance is very dependant on temperature. I remember seeing stuff like 10-20% output at 0 degrees F. So you need to design to worst case performance to get the average of 1 fc on the ground. It's amazing how quickly 2 fixtures can become 20 fixtures. The majority of inspectors don't seem to notices things like this since they inspect the lighting in spring/summer/fall conditions. I design to code, not what I can get away with. This is why I hate the situation that you're in.
 
Mike, 'Down lights' these are recessed fixtures in the cieling ? If they are

I don't know why there is a problem, There's lots of recessed EM fixtures out

there!! I just did a google search for outdoor recessed EM fixtures, tons of hits!!

edit to add google,
 
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Yes, you could use an inverter that supplies 120 volts with a battery backup. (Make sure its listed for emergency lighting use.)

You could also use an EM fixture with a battery heater. Lithonia makes at least a few including the Indura. Also, Lithonia's "Affinity" is good to zero deg. F.

Lithonia also makes low voltage remote heads and recessed heads. Just install these, and connect to a Lithonia ELM with a larger wattage battery located inside. (The ELM is a standard dual head emergency light. You can get it with a 54 or 72 watt battery pack.)


Steve
 
Lithonia also makes low voltage remote heads and recessed heads. Just install these, and connect to a Lithonia ELM with a larger wattage battery located inside. (The ELM is a standard dual head emergency light. You can get it with a 54 or 72 watt battery pack.)
Click to expand...

Be careful when buying Lithonia outdoor products. They have been outsourcing their production to China and I can tell you from first hand experience that you may be replacing that fixture in a few months.....probably in the worst of weather.

Complaints via e-mail to their company web site will go unanswered if you get the same treatment as I did.
 
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