Question about Emergrncy light operation...

[milemaker13]

Hey Gang!
I've got a question or two about the emergency lights in our warehouse. About a month ago some under floor electric was cut while pouring a new concrete pad. Long story short, I finally got around to restoring power to these EM lights.


Now with power restored, they heads are lit up constantly. I went and fiddled with them a little (ie. pressed the test button, checked battery volts and scratched my head) but cannot figure out why they don't work properly. It has now been nearly 24 hrs and they are still the same.
:?
This particular type (we have several differant types in the building) uses (2) 6 volt, 7 amp hour batteries, incandesesent bulbs and has a small PCB and transformer for charging.

Checking voltage, I got about 7 volts (should be 12v). The unit appeared to be charging at that point because when pressing the test button the volts dropped to less that 3 volts .

So, my question: Does anybody know how these SHOULD operate? I have no instructions on this unit. I just wanted to ask you all before condeming the little PCB (and therefore the whole fixture I guess). I am going to google all I can, but I usually get very good advice right here.

OK, thanks much- I'll check back at break time

 

[mgookin]

Did you measure the line voltage feeding them?

Sounds like you have enough voltage there to make the lights come on but not enough for the system to think you have proper power supplied to them.

 

[cadpoint]

Just find some new replacement parts. For two lights what's the big deal, deduct it againest the job.

Could you confirm what this light is, a area E light, a E light in a corridor, Is this the E exit sign?

MO
Yes, the cutting of the wires could have smoked the PCB board(frankly it probably did).
Could some power still be let through a burned PCB yes because by design its sensing to release the power and there multi-routed by design (by the board). Your seeing the results that a light is on but on a trickle to the battery. Frankly the battery could just be old and tired! Sparking any battery is not a good thing and just compounded the problem.

As I recall - a emergency exit light is to work for 90 minutes, I believe it's the same for
any light that's installed for E purposes, sounds like you might need to test this off hours.

Did you correctly use the right wire to the right place?
Since cutting of the wires was involved, sometimes not always they could be wired one of two ways.
Two complete circuits to each E Light,or the E connection it's just connected to same circuit service.
If a timer and contactor is involved it could be any combination of above.

Then you could find that there was a color blind electrician in on the original install.

 

[milemaker13]

Sorry, the line voltage is 277v. I checked the voltage after re-running the power. Actually, I have several (like half dozen or so) with this problem. I havn't actually gotten around to all of them yet. There are combo exit/ area lights and just area lights in the whole south west portion of our warehouse/factory. The lines that were severed served this area.

I like the idea that the cut and resulting power fluxuations may have partially smoked the PCBs. That is as likely a theroy as any.

I'll check back later. Thanks!

 

[nizak]

Are the heads individually fed with x-fmr's in them or do they feed from a lighting inverter(Synchron Dual Brite, for example)? The inverters have a microprocessor in them that may have been damaged with the power loss.