Recessed Dropdown Emergency Lights

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badcowboy

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San Francisco, CA
I have an architect that is requesting drop down emergency lighting. Some people I have talked to have mentioned problems with these lights not dropping when required, etc. The experience is several years old.

Has anyone had recent experience with this style of emergency lighting? Do they work without any problems?
 
Emergi-Lite makes some good ones but they are expensive. We used them in a high end commercial fit-up a while back and they test without problems.
 
I spec'd Lithonia's velare drop down emergency lights, and there hasn't been any problems that I know of at the installation.

But the painters haven't been back and sealed the doors with another coat of paint! That is the biggest cause of failure that my rep told me.
 
But the painters haven't been back and sealed the doors with another coat of paint! That is the biggest cause of failure that my rep told me.
Click to expand...

Entirely believable, they paint it all.

Considering we are not going to be able to change the actions of painters, in my opinion the use of these fixtures for life safety applications is a questionable design.

It seems it is putting appearance ahead of reliability.

JMO
 
We have installed them in high end conference rooms. IMO even if they did fail the EM light right outside the door would get people out. But as Bob pointed out, an entire space using these may be less than desirable.
 
Seems like if these are high end type fixtures, the building will likely be served by a generator. The drop down lights would really only need to work long enough for a generator to start and come online, I'd think. Maybe I'm thinking too much.
 
This is one of those buildings that is in the 'special' category. It is a high rise (9 stories), but it was built in 1912, so it is historic -- No generator, no sprinkler and fire alarm system is local alarm only.
 
I installed them once, I wish I could remember what brand was spec'd out, but they were a PITA to trim out, and maybe 1 out of 20 times they would freak out when pushing the test button...
 
If the architect is looking for something other than "Bugeyes" Have them look at the Lithonia Affinity. Looks good and might fit with the interior design.

This was a non-compensated endorsement.
 
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