Emergency lighting

[gerry.slater65@]

Hello all.
Many apologies if I’m not in the right place.... and for my terminology (or lack of it)but here goes. It’s been a while.

I’ve been asked to sort an issue with emergency lighting.

A block with five floors has ‘normal’ and el’s
A breaker on the CU turns off all existing lighting and turns on the emergencies. It also has a key switch which does the same thing.
That’s all correct up to now? Yes?

The issue is, the separate floors have a contactor for each floor.
Turning off these breakers will not activate el’s.
So a localised fault does not work the el’s.
Not having been there I couldn’t tell you whether a localised problem will cause the mcb in the CU to drop.
If it does, I presume that everything is as it should be.
If not, I’d like to know my options.

That’s the problem.

The Electrician who did the Periodic ‘failed’ the emergency lighting.

Is he/she right?

If so, what’s the fix?

They don’t want maintained.

Could I lose the contactors and wire straight into the lighting breaker if the load isn’t too great?

Or anything else you can think of?

Sorry it’s long winded with many questions but I would greatly appreciate some advice.

Words of one syllable for me please.
Thank you in advance.

Gerry.

 

[westward10]

Sounds like they may be connected to the control circuit hence they do not function upon failure of the general lighting. Are they maintained or non maintained.

 

[gerry.slater65@]

Sounds like they may be connected to the control circuit hence they do not function upon failure of the general lighting. Are they maintained or non maintained.

They are non maintained ?

 

[ipf]

Not really with you. Are you talking communal lighting fed via contactors with time clock or some other control system?
You say you haven't been there.....it might help if you went to site to assess the situation fully??

 

[gerry.slater65@]

Not really with you. Are you talking communal lighting fed via contactors with time clock or some other control system?

Sorry for the confusion.
Yes contactors with time clock.

 

[westward10]

If you are turning off mcbs for the general lighting and they stay off it is almost certain they are somehow connected to the control circuit and I suspect the test facility is interrupting the control circuit, this in itself could be creating a dangerous situation whereby all the general lighting goes off. Needs a bit of further investigation because I can't see losing the contactors will make much difference. It is possible all em lights are on the same circuit separate from the general lighting, the easiest resolution would be to replace them all with maintained fittings.
Needs further investigation but I suspect I am correct.

 

[gerry.slater65@]

If you are turning off mcbs for the general lighting and they stay off it is almost certain they are somehow connected to the control circuit and I suspect the test facility is interrupting the control circuit, this in itself could be creating a dangerous situation whereby all the general lighting goes off. Needs a bit of further investigation because I can't see losing the contactors will make much difference. It is possible all em lights are on the same circuit separate from the general lighting, the easiest resolution would be to replace them all with maintained fittings.
Needs further investigation but I suspect I am correct.

Certainly needs further investigation.
To clarify. All communal lights go off with flicking of one breaker and with operation of key switch. Emergency’s come on.
Unfortunately they don’t want maintained.
Is the Electrician correct in failing this?

 

[westward10]

You don't fail it as such you compile some kind of compliance report. Yes they are correct that failure of a general lighting circuit should activate the local non maintained lights.
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Funnily enough this is common for retail lighting whereby the em lighting is often connected to the last person out control circuit but this is generally okay as the retail area is likely to have multiple lighting circuits and the failure of one is going to be negligible and you want them to come on if the control circuit failed.