Emergency lighting fault

[Luke J]

Hi All,

New to the forum and was seeking some advice.

I have arrived at a site to complete yearly 3 hour emgencey lighting test. Once completed I switched the power back on and half the emergency lamps haven't turned back on. When you turn the power off, the lamp lights up in emergency mode, but it will not turn on when breakers are turned on. I have replaced the ballast but that is as far as my knowledge takes me unfortunately.

They are square fittings with 2x 36w lamps but each lamp is powered by a single ballast, so 2 ballasts in the fitting. The lamps are 36w 2G11 4pin. The ballasts are single A2 , Quicktronic Osram 1x36/230-240. I haven't touched any cables and the lamps worked fine before the test was carried out. The lamp that isn't emergency lights up fine when powered and the green LED is lit too.
I hope I have given enough information please don't hesitate to ask for more information

Any advice would be very welcome thanks.

 

[Luke J]

Westward, unfortunately I am 100% certain that the lamps were working before I started the test.

Stspark, the ballast I replaced was brand new out of the box and was like for like. I changed twice as i have had dud ones brand new previously. I will give the manufacturers instructions a good read to see if there is anything ive missed.

Vorigern, if the fish key switch was damaged would that cause half of the emergency lights to re energise when the power is back on but others not to come back on? The floor is probably 80% emergencies have not come back on and 20% have come back on and they are all supplied from the same DB and fish key switch.

Just want to say thanks everyone for ypur replies so far.

 

[westward10]

You need to follow through what I said in #6 and do a bit of testing it could be a simple lose connection along the run.

 

[Luke J]

Westward, I have swapped tubes and put new ones in, only the non emergency lights up everytime . I have tried putting left one in first then right one and vice versa and same result everytime.

 

[westward10]

If you have so many not functioning you need to verify the supplies are live at the fittings as opposed to assuming they are faulty. One or two not working you may think faulty fitting but with so many I would check the supplies are not at fault.

 

[ashg285]

I go to a lot of communal lights going faulty where I work,a lot of the time it's the photocell that's gone sometimes a nightmare to gain access to as well
Good luck

 

[snowhead]

I think the missing lamps will be on next week when you get back..
Only 1 item, per fitting, has changed state from before to after.
That state will recover.

 

[The Ghost]

Note to self: Ensure brain is in gear before operating mouth (Keyboard).

 

[Sparkingmad]

Luke J did you do a full 3hr test? It is possible that you have drained the batteries completely and logic states that when power is restored the lights should work in my experience it is not the case. Some of those fittings had an aweful amount of electronics that were prone to tripping up. You do a test like you have re-energise get a lot of failures make a list get replacement lamps ballasts batteries etc go back a day or 2 later and find most if not all are working again. Some fittings have auto test features which can be a pain too.

 

[freddo]

I went to a newish block of 6 flats to test the communal emergency lighting, found the test switch and turned it off, after the test none of the lights worked again. Turned out that the test switch cut the permanent L but not the switched L, the electronic gear didn't like that at all.

I tried cutting all the power for a few minutes, new lamps, and even swapped batteries in one but it was no good. All the lights lasted the full duration though... Had to go back and connect the test switch properly and replace all the lights. While I was there I even went as far as fitting earth sleeving to the bare CPCs and blanks in the DB. This building also had some fake wiring where a switch and outside light were installed, but no cable between them. The things some people get away with!