Which circuit for emergency lighting?

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sfav8r

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San Francisco Bay Area
Does article 700 (or any other) dictate which circuit emergency lighting needs to go on? Logically, it would go on the same circuit as the lighting in the room it is providing emergency lighting for, but this isn't always practical. For example, the job were looking at now has an LCP that turns off all the building lights at 11pm. If the E-lights are on the lighting circuit, they will activate when the lighting circuits turn off because it kills power at the panel. Running constant-hots for each lighting circuit would be challenging with the exisiting building. We would prefer to just run ONE of the lighting circuits to all of the e-lights. I couldn't find anything specifically addressing this.

Thanks
 
If you are asking about what circuit to connect a battery unit to than yes the NEC generally requires it to be on the same circuit supplying the lighting in that area and yes that can be a pain.

The NEC calls a battery unit "Unit Equipment"

See 700.12(F) 2011 NEC


Here is the part you really need to see


..... The branch circuit feeding
the unit equipment shall be the same branch circuit as that
serving the normal lighting in the area and connected ahead
of any local switches. The branch circuit that feeds unit
equipment shall be clearly identified at the distribution
panel. ..........

Exception No. 1: In a separate and uninterrupted area
supplied by a minimum of three normal lighting circuits, a
separate branch circuit for unit equipment shall be permitted
if it originates from the same panelboard as that of the
normal lighting circuits and is provided with a lock-on
feature.
Click to expand...
 
iwire said:
If you are asking about what circuit to connect a battery unit to than yes the NEC generally requires it to be on the same circuit supplying the lighting in that area and yes that can be a pain.

The NEC calls a battery unit "Unit Equipment"

See 700.12(F) 2011 NEC


Here is the part you really need to see
Click to expand...

Well that's painfully clear. I guess I skipped over that section because of the title "Unit Equipment." It didn't scream emergency lights some how ;-).

Thanks for that reference. It does make sense for it to be on one of the local lighting circuits. Guess we'll be adding some surface conduit. That should make the architect happy.
 
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