Industries

General lighting standards for the Healthcare industry are much higher than other services or industries. Surgical LED lights, germicidal lamps, and mobile luminance requirements have tight higher operational standards than a standard commercial facility.

Illumination Requirements

Illumination requirements maintain that 1fc level illumination average, with a minimum of 0.1 fc. Illumination levels are allowed to decline to an average of 0.6 fc. At the end of the 90-minute requirements a nominal 0.06 fc minimum is required.

Restoration of Power

In general, it is required that the emergency power system restore lighting within 10 seconds after loss of normal power, and for a duration of 90 minutes from that time.  This is a standard defined by NFPA 101 7.9.2.2. Systems shall be of the Type 10, Level 1 System, and Class 1.5. 

Commercial building projects such as apartments and condominiums require NFPA 101 certified emergency egress exit lighting. Central inverter systems are becoming more popular as a centralized power system for the entire building or complex. Previous project standards would provide for “on-board” battery lighting systems that require intensive battery maintenance and testing. A centralized lighting inverter system for an apartment or condo grouping allows for a single location to house the 90 minute battery and inverter system. Distributed wired exit facilities systems then are hardwired direct to the central inverter system.

One of the most comprehensive applications for emergency exist and NFPA standard compliance is the hotel and conference industry. A hotel facility has an increased order of magnitude exit routes and exit lighting installations. A UL 924 certified central lighting inverter system is the most efficient installation for ease of maintenance, testing, and operation. Requirement of 1.5 hours of backup power meets the NFPA 101 Life Safety standard. Comprehensive emergency lighting plans and specs are developed to cover a hotel and conference facility for today’s construction industry.

In today’s commercial and retail facilities, it is important that backup power to emergency lighting systems also adhere to Life Safety NFPA Code 10. In addition to I.T. equipment in general, applications include surveillance cameras, security systems, and network communications. For retail, battery backup for point of sale protection is a must, including the network hardware responsible for communicating sales transactions.

Building automation, control, and monitoring are crucial because they allow facility engineers to control the building’s climate and energy usage, and understand the status of critical systems. Power quality and reliable battery backup are required. A properly sized central inverter system with monitoring controls provides today’s facility manager with access to operations data and reports to fulfill complicated reporting requirements. UL 924 central lighting inverters designed to support entire office facilities provide an easy means to centrally manage emergency lighting installations. No longer is the facility department needing to test individual lighting battery systems, when the central battery and inverter system is distributed throughout the facility in a distributed manner.

Keeping schools and educational facilities running efficiently is critical in today’s society, and power quality plays an important role. Since computers and other electronic devices are now commonplace within classrooms and other school venues, there is certainly a requirement for clean power.

To provide protection from electrical noise and voltage transients, “clean power” panelboards are often installed to feed computer lab rooms, and to protect sensitive A/V equipment within the performing arts center. Each panelboard is supplied power from a multi-shielded, K-13 rated, computer-grade isolation transformer, typically together with a surge protection device (SPD).

In addition to clean power, uninterruptible power is crucial for school security systems. These systems include video surveillance cameras covering campus entry points and hallways, as well as outdoor gathering spaces and parking lots. Battery backup is also needed for critical systems that allow the school to communicate both on campus and with local police and fire departments.

Emergency Lighting represents a life safety requirement which is mandated by NFPA 101 – 7.9.2 for safe egress from any building, structure, or public space. This encompasses a long list of facilities and venues including schools, universities, sports arenas, theaters, shopping malls, hospitals, parking structures, industrial buildings, military bases, correctional facilities, and more.

To serve this market, we design and manufacture emergency lighting inverters that are fully compatible with all lighting fixture types, including LED. All of our standard 90-minute inverters are listed as UL 924 “Emergency Lighting Equipment,” C-UL listed to CSA standards, and are NFPA 101 compliant. Our inverters provide automatic self-testing and logging of the results per NFPA 101 – 7.9.3.1.3., and remote monitoring is available via BACnet, Ethernet TCP/IP, or MODBUS. Each inverter model is easy to install, and many boast of an industry-leading small cabinet footprint!

In addition to our inverter products, we also offer a UL 1008 listed automatic transfer switch to allow locally-controlled or dimmable lighting fixtures to function as essential emergency lighting.

Concert halls, theaters, casinos, and sports venues to broadcast studios and audio/video production, Life Safety NFPA 101 approved systems are a very integral part of the electrical plan. Distributed electrical and Life Safety UL 924 Central Emergency Battery systems providing power to all the emergency lighting facilities is the most efficient way to provide for 90 minute runtime requirements. Complicated power systems, UPS systems, backup generators, and IT closets are a typical electrical footprint in these facilities. During the design and installation process for emergency lighting in Casinos and Entertainment facilities, close attention is paid to proper power distribution, combined distribution for emergency lighting power, and central power and communications connections to every facet of the facility.