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UPS/ Battery rack and inverter replacing emergency kits

Amos Owaga

Hi all,

Are Battery racks/packs and inverters or dedicated small ups replacing the Emergency kit fittings?

I have been looking at latest designs and its of concern that the emergency lighting is currently seen in terms of the time limit before the backup (standby Genset comes up) which literally means, the emergency lighting is vaguely seen as having a few luminance so that we don't remain in total darkness and  not in the sense of safety in case of fire.

Of course this new trend also comes with the problem of having two sources at possible different voltage levels or from different phases in the same room at both high and low levels and having 2 consumer units at each location plus the distributed cabling and the switching, conduits through the walls/cavities.

How does this affect the harmonic levels in the system?

Are there any EMC problems related to the approach?

How are you people dealing with this kind of problem/ trend and is this the right way or is cost saving taking over the industry?

Parents
  • 0

    Sounds like a re-invention of an AC version of the 1960s central battery backup-lighting.

    There is no problem having multiple supplies or phases of the same supply side by side, as in normal operation the live bits of one, let alone both are not accessible to users.

    Labelling for isolation for service etc needs to clear though and perhaps some use of indicator lamps. In principle it is not a bad idea but needs thinking through especially in terms of test and validation, and coverage of all corner cases - what happens if the genset is the thing on fire...

    Mike.

Reply
  • 0

    Sounds like a re-invention of an AC version of the 1960s central battery backup-lighting.

    There is no problem having multiple supplies or phases of the same supply side by side, as in normal operation the live bits of one, let alone both are not accessible to users.

    Labelling for isolation for service etc needs to clear though and perhaps some use of indicator lamps. In principle it is not a bad idea but needs thinking through especially in terms of test and validation, and coverage of all corner cases - what happens if the genset is the thing on fire...

    Mike.

Children
  • 0 in reply to mapj1

    That has been my worry because in the case of an emergency i.e fire in this case  then the incoming breakers are disconnected /tripped, that's where the fire man switch comes in. What happens then? And why would it be a major concern at a later stage of the project to change to battery+plus inverter and only have a few fittings as 'emergency'.

  • 0 in reply to mapj1

    Fire and emergency lighting are not related. Emergency lighting is for when mains power fails, not for if the fire alarm goes off. Yes, one may follow the other, but by the time the fire kills the mains and any centralised battery back for a centralised e.lighting system, the building should be emtpy.

  • 0 in reply to pww235

    I may to late for this, and I get your line of thought, however, this is a fully designed building ( with Em packs end exit signs at strategic positions) to handle 2 situations, power failure there is light probably directed to critical areas that has to have light and for advertisements (i.e artworks), at a later stage in the construction, there comes a suggestion by the client that the emergency fittings are expensive lets replace them with localized/ distributed inverter and battery packs, With that idea, he also suggests that the size of the inverter and battery pack based on cost and suggests that some points that were initially dedicated for emergency lighting be shifted to the 'raw' power lighting circuits. Leaving the building with just a few luminaires on Battery pack, the main reason being the genset will kick in, in 3-5 seconds depending on the delay time set at the ats controls. What is your thought on this approach? 

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