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Electrical Room Lighting

We ask for them politely,(and usually get them), but they are not "required" in baths or elec-rooms if you go with the all the occupiable space or MOE having emergency lights, 95% of all areas of all buildings would have emergencies...lights that is....
 
peach said:
NEC 700.16 - Emergency Illumination: emergency illumination shall include all required means of egress lighting, illuminated exit signs, and all other lights specified as necessary to provide required illumination. That's pretty general, I realize, however if the NEC doesn't specifically address electrical rooms, it's probably not required (I wouldn't use a motion sensor, though). Fire fighters are going to have lights with them anyway.
This is very general, and again I get it, if I had been in the department when they made their interpretation of the code for Electrical rooms and multi user bathrooms then i would have thrown up a flag at the requirement for emergency lighting. As it is we only continue the practice in order to maintain consistency. The Code Official here during our adoption of ICC family of codes determined he could specify areas that needed illumination "700.16 - and all other lights specified as necessary to provide required illumination", this is a weak point to stand on and I have always been told to stay consistent.

We are currently about to adopt the 2009 in January, I will strive to make this official in an amendment.
 
Where were all of you when the vote was take for the 2012 IBC?

There was a proposal to specifically require emergency lighting in electrical rooms that was ripped to shreds by the Committee and again by the membership at the FAH. The fact that some electrician might be in that room troubleshooting the lack of lighting, or might have slipped and been the cause of the outage and might be lying on the floor needing assistance was evidently not compelling enough to add a requirement for a simple, inexpensive light (from the emergency source if there is already one installed, or a unit light if there is no emergency system), that might save a life or assist in a rescue.

I am a master electrician, former electrical inspector, and have "been in the dark" too often working on live electrical equipment trying to troubleshoot something or other. I am:inspctr also a member of CMP-1 to the NEC and this was brought up for the 2011 Edition, and we said it should be in the building code and encouraged the submitter to propose it there. Then it was shot down by the building community. From reading all the comments here, it seems clear that at least you wise folks on the Forum think this is important and a safety issue. It would be a lot easier to get EM installed in the electrical room if it were in a model code rather than having to go to local amendments.

Proposals to the 2014 NEC are due by November 4 and to the 2015 IBC by January 2 (I think). Hint. Hint.
 
jfandre said:
I am:inspctr also a member of CMP-1 to the NEC
Welcome to the forum. May I ask how you found us? Also I see you represent NEMA on CMP-1. I'm guessing since you handle 110 this was a proposal for 110.26. Got a link to the ROP?

Thanks
 
chris kennedy said:
Welcome to the forum. May I ask how you found us? Also I see you represent NEMA on CMP-1. I'm guessing since you handle 110 this was a proposal for 110.26. Got a link to the ROP?Thanks
Has anyone found this purported proposal?

I have been searching and can not find. I wanted to see what comments where and why it did not go forward.

As a side note is there a possible way to tag a post for subject matter that would be used as a reminder for a code proposal change?
 
Here is two proposals of four that I have found.

It appears that this has been presented and rejected numerous times to various different codes

and no one wants it.

I have searched IBC but can not find the one mentioned in post #27

Report on Proposals – June 2011

NFPA 101

_______________________________________________

________________________________________________

101-194 Log #210 SAF-BSF

_______________________________________________

________________________________________________

Michael A. Anthony, University of Michigan

Add text to read as follows:

The ingress path into the building electric service room and th

e area around all interior

service panels in non-dwelling unit occupancies 200 amperes and

above shall be automatically illuminated upon loss of

power.

Illumination level shall be 1-footcandle on the ingress path fr

om the switchgear and

3-footcandles on the vertical surfaces of the service equipment

.

A delay of not more than 10 seconds upon starting and a duratio

n of not less than

90-minutes shall be required.

This proposal originated in a proposal 1-218, Log #2401 of the

2005 National Electric Code cycle by

David Williams, Chief Electrical Inspector of Delta Township, M

ichigan. The concept of emergency lighting for

electricians in electrical equipment rooms was rejected 11-1 in

that cycle and, in intervening ROP's and ROC's became

a broadening discussion.

In the 2011 ROP, CMP-1 rejected it again, explaining that a req

uirement of this nature belongs in the Life Safety Code.

Note: Supporting material is available for review at NFPA Head

quarters.

Illumination of electrical equipment ingress paths is not withi

n the scope of Chapter 9. It is

noted that Chapter 7, Means of Egress, addresses illumination o

f means of egress and emergency lighting. In addition,

see 7.4.2, Spaces About Electrical Equipment.

_______________________________________________

________________________________________________

101-194a Log #CP301 SAF-BSF

_______________________________________________

_______________ __________________________________________________ ______________

1-149 Log #1760 NEC-P01 Final Action: Reject

(110.26(D)(1) (New) )

__________________________________________________ ______________

Submitter: Michael A. Anthony, University of Michigan

Recommendation: Add new text to read as follows:

(110.26(D)(1) (New) ) Illumination Emergency Power. An emergency

lighting system shall automatically illuminate the areas around electrical

service panels greater than 200 amperes for a duration of not less than 90

minutes.

Substantiation: This proposal is intended to provide an illuminated path for

rescue personnel that leads toward the electric service equipment in the event

that an electrician is injured. In many cases, an ingress toward electric service

equipment is not the same as the egress path and that path could be dark and

delay first responders getting to the electric service equipment because, after

all, the accident at the service panel caused the outage in the first place.

This safety concept originated in Proposal 1-218, Log #2401 of the 2005

National Electric Code cycle by David Williams, Chief Electrical Inspector of

Delta Township, Michigan and has been shopped around for the past six years

by the submitter to the NFPA 70B, 70E and 101 committees. All of these

committees think that this requirement belongs in another document. The

substantiation for the most recent rejection by the NFPA 101 committee is

reproduced here for the convenience of CMP-1:

Committee Statement: The purpose of the Code is to facilitate evacuation from

the facility, not to facilitate repairs during a power outage. Service personnel

can carry portable luminaires (flashlights), if needed.

So there you have it: a near-perfect circle of fingers, each committee pointing

to another committee or another document. This seems to be a clear case that

the IBEW and other interest groups would want to strengthen the safety net for

electricians. A companion proposal will be submitted to the committee working

on Article 230.

Panel Meeting Action: Reject

Panel Statement: It is not reasonable to require emergency lighting of all the

equipment listed at a particular facility. There is insufficient technical

substantiation to make this a general installation requirement. The Panel notes

Panel 13 has purview over Article 700 in the NEC where the concern of the

submitter can be addressed. The Panel requests the Technical Correlating

Committee forward this proposal to Panel 13 for information.

Number Eligible to Vote: 12

Ballot Results: Affirmative: 10 Negative: 2
 
Mac said:
As it happens, my most recent electrical room (just this morning) is required to have an emergency power system - the requirement comes from the health care rules for dialysis centers, not from building codes. I also understand that building codes don't require EM lights, but still think it would be a good idea.
I agree Mac.. good idea, but not code required.
 
I know this is an old article, but I want to bring up how wrong
Absolutely, and it is rare that an MEP tries to wiggle out of it. If they balk at it I point to IBC 1205.1 and say you must provide the space with light whether the electric is working or not. Then I tell them how some maintenance man may be checking the breaker box in the dark and the power might come back on while his hand is groping around in the wrong place. The law suit will read MEP talks AHJ into not putting in emergency lighting.

While I know this is an old thread, I wanted to reply in order to point out the inaccurate statements made in this thread, starting with the above, for the sake of future readers who may come across this thread amidst their research.

The building code establishes a distinction between illumination and emergency illumination. The above code states

..artificial lighting will be provided in accordance with Section 1205.3..

and if we take a look at 1205.3, it states:

Aritificial light shall be provided that is adequate to provide an average illumination of 10 foot candles over the area of the room at a height of 30 inches above the floor level.
Hence, the requirement is only stating to provide lighting. Not emergency lighting. Had we followed the logic gbhammer is proposing, all spaces would require emergency lighting, including storage rooms, officers, and other spaces we don't typically see emergency ligthing. However, his logic does not hold true to the intent of the code.

If we go further down the lighting article of the building code, it has a section titled 1205.5, 'Emergency Egress Lighting', which directs us to Section 1006.1. Section 1006.1 reads

The means of egress, including exit discharge, shall be illuminated at all times the building space served the means of egress is occupied.

It then states the criteria for said illumination, which is 1 FC minimum at the walking surface in 1006.2. Even further down, 1006.3, titled Illumination emergency power states

The power supply for means of egress illlumination shall be provided by the premises electrical supply. In the event of power supply failure, an emergency electrical system shall automatically illuminate the following areas:"

and it goes on to list the areas that require said emegency illumination. It then provides a separate criteria for emergency illumination on Section 1006.4.

If it were the intent of the code to require at all spaces that are intended to be occupied by a human to require emergency lighting, it'd be quite a roundabout way of doing so. But as we know, that isn't the intent of the code, since, when the code does want to require certain spaces require emergency lighting, it explicitly states it.

So while I do agree it is good design practice to provide emergency lighting in the electrical room (and I personally as an electrical engineer provide it, unless ownership asks us to remove it, at their own risk, and against our recommendation), it is not required per the 2006 IBC.

P.S. Please note, at the time of this writing, the recent 2018 IBC has added electrical equipment rooms, fire command centers, fire pump rooms, generator rooms, and even public restrooms to the list of spaces that require emergency lighting.
 
I know this is an old article, but I want to bring up how wrong


While I know this is an old thread, I wanted to reply in order to point out the inaccurate statements made in this thread, starting with the above, for the sake of future readers who may come across this thread amidst their research.

The building code establishes a distinction between illumination and emergency illumination. The above code states



and if we take a look at 1205.3, it states:


Hence, the requirement is only stating to provide lighting. Not emergency lighting. Had we followed the logic gbhammer is proposing, all spaces would require emergency lighting, including storage rooms, officers, and other spaces we don't typically see emergency ligthing. However, his logic does not hold true to the intent of the code.

If we go further down the lighting article of the building code, it has a section titled 1205.5, 'Emergency Egress Lighting', which directs us to Section 1006.1. Section 1006.1 reads



It then states the criteria for said illumination, which is 1 FC minimum at the walking surface in 1006.2. Even further down, 1006.3, titled Illumination emergency power states



and it goes on to list the areas that require said emegency illumination. It then provides a separate criteria for emergency illumination on Section 1006.4.

If it were the intent of the code to require at all spaces that are intended to be occupied by a human to require emergency lighting, it'd be quite a roundabout way of doing so. But as we know, that isn't the intent of the code, since, when the code does want to require certain spaces require emergency lighting, it explicitly states it.

So while I do agree it is good design practice to provide emergency lighting in the electrical room (and I personally as an electrical engineer provide it, unless ownership asks us to remove it, at their own risk, and against our recommendation), it is not required per the 2006 IBC.

P.S. Please note, at the time of this writing, the recent 2018 IBC has added electrical equipment rooms, fire command centers, fire pump rooms, generator rooms, and even public restrooms to the list of spaces that require emergency lighting.


Welcome
 
(Amd) 1008.3.3 Other areas. In the event of power supply failure, an emergency electrical
system shall automatically illuminate all of the following areas:
1. Electrical equipment rooms.
2. Fire command centers.
3. Fire pump rooms.
4. Generator rooms.
5. Public restrooms with an area greater than 300 square feet (27.87 m2).
6. Means of egress components, other than those within sleeping rooms, of Group R-1 bed
and breakfast establishments.
 
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