Emergency lights and bonding to water pipe

[hillbillie]

I have two questions.

Firstly I need to bond the water pipe where I work with 50mm (PME, with a neutral over 150mm). It just so happens the structural steel is bonded and would do very well as the bonding for the water pipe if I run a 50mm to it. I have loads of 35mm green and yellow, can I run two 35mm cables and bond the water pipe to the structural steel with these or would this be considerd bad practice?

Secondly, I am probably going to be asked to put in about 4 TP&N boards in the main warehouse and replace about two thirds of the lighting circuits. There are no emergency lights in the place whatsoever and the owner won't want me to put them in unless he is obliged to by the building regs. I'm not sure of the regs re emergency lighting in an old building. The warehouse area is well over 60 m[SUP]2[/SUP] so it would have to have them if it was a new building...and the smart thing to do would be to put them in but its not my building, so it's not my call. Is there a building reg that says old buildings need emergency lights when being partially rewired?

Help please.

 

[Engineer54]

Are you sure this is a PME installation?? Does your company have an on site 11KV/400V TX on the site by any chance??

 

[hillbillie]

No, now that you mention it, I'm not sure. Please see the other thread i replied to you in (re old Wylex boards) it says 'Protected multiple earths, do not touch' on a crimped off panel under the MCCB but there is definitely a green and yellow earth cable (35 or 50mm, not sure) alongside the three and a half cores going back from the switch room to the transformer. I would have thought that this meant it was a TN-S system but I always assume the people that create these big switching units know more than I do.

 

[Knobhead]

I think you’ve managed to find the neutral/earth connection point for a TN-S system. As it says, do not touch! Sorry but I’ve got mixed up a couple of times when the N/E link has been removed. Not by me, but I had to sort the aftermath out.

From a post of mine on another board.

Floating Neutral.
One to add to the experience pile. Got a call to a plant, all the office equipment had failed. On arrival I tested the supply to the office and all seemed OK. Called the lads from office services to come and sort their junk out. All power supplies smoked! I'm puzzled now, how could 4 go wrong together. Got talking to the plant manager and he tells me that the lighting had "gone weird" for a while. Went back and checked the Ph -N voltages again and all OK.
It wasn't until lunchtime when I got talking to some of the other electricians that things became clear. Two of them had installed a 150mm 3½C cable in to the plant main switch board that morning and had disconnected the neutral - earth cables to make it easier to get their cable in, when finished they reconnected them. To quote one of them "I thought there was a bit of a spark!"
What galled me was I'd fitted an engraved warning label to the earth bar when I installed it!

 

[Engineer54]

I think you’ve managed to find the neutral/earth connection point for a TN-S system. As it says, do not touch! Sorry but I’ve got mixed up a couple of times when the N/E link has been removed. Not by me, but I had to sort the aftermath out.

One of my thoughts exactly!! lol!! Not uncommon at all to have the TX, Neutral-Earth connection located within the Main Switchboard.... Makes installation of protective relays CT's etc, that much easier to install. (Restricted earth 64R)

As for your query on bonding the water service to this building, If the steel structure has been bonded to the main earthing bus bar, then yes it is more than acceptable to cross bond to the main incoming water pipe. Or any other service that may be entering the building.

 

[hillbillie]

Thanks gentlemen, for your replies. Please see the reply I posted in the thread about Wylex rewirables.

Can anyone out there help with emergency lighting regs?

 

[Paul.M]

EMERGENCY LIGHTING DESIGN GUIDEwww.iar.unicamp.br/.../emergency_lighting_ ...

Sorry I cant seem to copy and paste a pdf file but have a look at the above, this will be a great help to.

 

[hillbillie]

EMERGENCY LIGHTING DESIGN GUIDEwww.iar.unicamp.br/.../emergency_lighting_ ...

Sorry I cant seem to copy and paste a pdf file but have a look at the above, this will be a great help to.

I tried; it sends me to a Spanish website!? Are you sure you copied the URL correctly?

Thanks.

 

[Paul.M]

I tried; it sends me to a Spanish website!? Are you sure you copied the URL correctly?

Thanks.

I hope it was a good Spanish web site lol.

I'll have another go at it for you.

 

[Paul.M]

Let's see if that works?

No it didn't, Dow.

If you punch up EM lighting regs into Google it will bring up loads if pdf options (one of them is in Spanish lol).

 

[netblindpaul]

Try BS5266?

 

[hillbillie]

Try BS5266?

Should be good bedtime reading.

Yes, I could buy this expensive publication and then spend a lot of time finding out the information I was hoping some wise soul could put in a sentence or two on this forum...but I thought I would go for the lazy cheapskate option and ask others first.

 

[netblindpaul]

Thing is there is more to 5266 than a few sentences really.
Are you contracted to do the EM lighting or are you looking to upsell?
What does the client FRA say with regard to Em ltg?
What is already there?
Is it certified?
Is it maintained?
Does it work?
What does your client want?

 

[hillbillie]

I will be taking a busbar in a warehouse out of service and diverting the circuits from the busbar to a few new D/Bs. Some of the lighting circuits I can keep but a lot I will be replacing. I can just replace like for like and that would be the easiest thing to do but there are no emergency lights in this place and I want to know if I would be obliged, by some reg somewhere, to include emergency lights in the new lighting circuits I will be putting in.

The customer just wants the cheapest option possible and would certainly not want me to put in emergency lights if there was no obligation to have them.

He owns the building, the staff working there are his staff and he is the one getting the place insured. I know that putting in emergency lights would be a sensible idea but its not my call...unless there is legislation saying that I have to. I don't have knowledge of the appropriate legislation/regs so I am asking others.