# Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting



## Glennman CBO (Mar 22, 2010)

Project: 4000 sq ft A-3 (church), occupant load =211, V-B construction, 2008 NEC.

Where egress lighting is provided per 2006 IBC section 1006.1, and the method of emergency back up is provided by means of battery back up, are the combo exit lights and/or egress lights (that have the battery installed in them) required to be connected to a dedicated circuit?

Thanks all.


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## raider1 (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

Actually the unit equipment must be connected to the same circuit that supplies the normal lighting in the area.

Here is what 700.12 of the NEC says about unit equipment used for emergency lighting.



> (F) Unit Equipment. Individual unit equipment for emergency illumination shall consist of the following:    (1) 	A rechargeable battery
> 
> (2) 	A battery charging means
> 
> ...


Chris


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## fatboy (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

Chris nailed it.........


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## jumper (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

Raider posted the code reference, so I will just add that it only makes sense to have the emergency egress lighting on the same circuit . The reason is that if you only have a partial, ie breaker tripped, vs a total loss of power, you want the back up lights to kick in. A dedicated circuit would only recognize a power outage on its own circuit.


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## jumper (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting



			
				fatboy said:
			
		

> Chris nailed it.........


I agree, that dude is good.


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## RJJ (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

agreed! But lets not give him a big head! :lol:


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## raider1 (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting



			
				RJJ said:
			
		

> agreed! But lets not give him a big head! :lol:


 :lol:

 :ugeek:  I'm just a code geek.  :ugeek:   

Chris


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## Heaven (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

Also you don't want them to be able to turn them off, for whatever reason (if they are a nuisance etc) without causing themselves a hardship (missing some desired lighting), or have the dedicated circuit trip and them not realizing it for weeks or months.


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## Glennman CBO (Mar 22, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

Thank you all. I appreciate your responses.


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## cda (Mar 28, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting

"""that it only makes sense to have the emergency egress lighting on the same circuit . The reason is that if you only have a partial,""""

so when an emergency generator is used to power all emergency lights, and no battery bak up,

does the above statement still apply????? if you lose a circuit in one room should the generator come on????????????  and no total loss of power to the building??


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## raider1 (Mar 29, 2010)

Re: Circuits Serving Emergency Lighting



			
				cda said:
			
		

> """that it only makes sense to have the emergency egress lighting on the same circuit . The reason is that if you only have a partial,""""so when an emergency generator is used to power all emergency lights, and no battery bak up,
> 
> does the above statement still apply????? if you lose a circuit in one room should the generator come on????????????  and no total loss of power to the building??


No, 700.12(F) only applies to unit equipment.

700.12(B) regulates generators and only requires a generator to start upon failure of the normal service.

Chris


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