Switching lights from breakers?

[BlackLead]

I'm looking down the road a bit, and trying to get some idea of what I'm up against here. Attached is a preliminary electrical plan of my garage. As you can see, I currently plan on having rows of lights that are separately switched, so that I can only turn on what is needed. As it stands now, it looks like I'd have a LOT of switches to sort thru. Is it acceptable to switch lights directly from the breakers, and not have switches for them? I'd like to keep a central bank of lights that can be switched from the wall switches, but the rest may be direct from the breaker, if possible. Any constructive criticism would be useful, since I'm just in the planning stages so far. Thanks in advance!

 

[nissan_crawler]

Standard breakers aren't meant to be used as switches, plus I think it would be inconvenient to open the box to turn lights on in the dark.

 

[LoneGunman]

I don't see a LOT of switches on your drawing, I see a 4 gang and a 2 gang. I don't understand what the issue is.

 

[rinny_tin_tin]

I'm looking down the road a bit, and trying to get some idea of what I'm up against here. Attached is a preliminary electrical plan of my garage. As you can see, I currently plan on having rows of lights that are separately switched, so that I can only turn on what is needed. As it stands now, it looks like I'd have a LOT of switches to sort thru. Is it acceptable to switch lights directly from the breakers, and not have switches for them? I'd like to keep a central bank of lights that can be switched from the wall switches, but the rest may be direct from the breaker, if possible. Any constructive criticism would be useful, since I'm just in the planning stages so far. Thanks in advance!

I like your layout - and this would work or me. Another arrangement and slight mod to consider for the interior fluorescent lites is to split up the center string with your port/stbd fluor arrangement. That is, one switch would control the port string, and 1/2 the center string, etc. Although using breakers routinely for ltg switching is not desired as so stated herein, you can dispense with the wall switch and control directly from the brkr ckts that are seldom (or never cept for maint ) switched. For instance, outdoor dawn/dusk ckts (photocell) outdoor & indoor recepts, garage door motor pwr, etc can be grouped to one branch feeder w/o need for wall switch. However, what you have now can go to press w/o mod

Good work

 

[700jfm]

I'm looking down the road a bit, and trying to get some idea of what I'm up against here. Attached is a preliminary electrical plan of my garage. As you can see, I currently plan on having rows of lights that are separately switched, so that I can only turn on what is needed. As it stands now, it looks like I'd have a LOT of switches to sort thru. Is it acceptable to switch lights directly from the breakers, and not have switches for them? I'd like to keep a central bank of lights that can be switched from the wall switches, but the rest may be direct from the breaker, if possible. Any constructive criticism would be useful, since I'm just in the planning stages so far. Thanks in advance!

Blacklead I don't think you have a LOT of switches, but then agan I don't know a LOT about it.
But what do know is that I'm at this point in the garage build road, and like your plan a LOT. I would like to copy it, as it looks so much better then what I came up with.

Thanks

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The following two questions and answers are from a Siemens molded case circuit breaker FAQ web page.

https://www.sea.siemens.com/circuit/product/circuitbreakers/FAQ.htm

Q: What breakers are rated for HID lighting at 480V?

A: HID stands for High Intensity Discharge and applies to several types of high output lighting such as high pressure sodium and mercury vapor. This type of lighting is particularly difficult for circuit breakers to switch and requires special testing of the breaker. Only the Siemens BQD 1 Pole 15-30 amp circuit breakers are HID rated at 480Vac.

Q: What does the SWD rating mean?

A: It means "Switching Duty". This rating applies to the switching of fluorescent lights ONLY, not HID lights or any other types of loads. The rating is limited by UL to 15-20A, 1 Pole circuit breakers. See the footnotes in the Siemens 2004 SPEEDFAXTM. At 480V, only the Siemens BQD and Siemens Sentron™ ED breakers are SWD rated.

Other manufacturers are similar.

Hope this helps.

Charles

 

[walrus]

Alot of stores that I work in use breakers as switches for lighting. The breaker should be rated to do so but its a common practice either way. An electrical inspector may not like it though, I've never been called on it. You might end up changing a breaker 10 or 15 years down the road

 

[nadogail]

You can buy a lot of switches for the price of one breaker.

 

[Torque1st]

If you have the doors open for ventilation the doors will cover the row of lights over them.

 

[BlackLead]

Thanks for all the input, everyone, and please keep it coming! I'm woefully ignorant regarding electrical stuff, which is why I won't be doing any of the work myself. That, plus the city I live in won't let me. I guess what I call a LOT of switches is pretty subjective. Too many choices tends to confuse me, so I try to simplify things for myself as much as I can. Although I suppose labeling the switches wouldn't be out of the question. I had also considered breaking up the lighting based on workspace vs. parking spaces, but that may be overthinking it. And would probably add even more switches. Since I have no idea how many lights I could run from one breaker, it might be too expensive to isolate a few lights to one breaker that could handle more, solely for the purpose of simplifying the switch layout. And I hadn't actually considered the cost of breakers vs switches, so thanks for pointing that out. I'd also seen lights controlled from breakers in stores, but I guess that's more of a commercial application, and not really relevant to a garage so much as a shop.
As far as the layout itself, thanks for the props. Feel free to borrow from it as much or as little as you want; I just tried to imagine how the lights would fall in relation to the garage door rails, where the shelves/benches would be on the walls, and what time of day I'd likely be needing that much light. As was pointed out, the ones over the doors would be blocked entirely by an open door, so those would probably only be used at night when everything is shut down. If anyone sees any other areas of concern, such as quantity or placement of outlets, please chime in! Lessons learned would be great, because I'd like to do this only once. And if there are any things I need to explain on the drawing, just let me know.
Sorry for the long post. And thanks again!

 

[LoneGunman]

Add an emergency light, think about it, you are in your garage working with a drill press or other machine and the breaker that controls your lighting circuit goes bad, you are in the middle of a dark shop with power tools running.

For $25 or so it's cheap insurance.

 

[nissan_crawler]

Add an emergency light, think about it, you are in your garage working with a drill press or other machine and the breaker that controls your lighting circuit goes bad, you are in the middle of a dark shop with power tools running.

For $25 or so it's cheap insurance.

x2. Cheaper than the copay at the ER.

 

[shamrock12]

You could use the breakers as switches. However if the breakers is being used as switches in 120v and 277v fluroscent lighting circuit, breaker should be listed and rated as SWD or HID. If used as switches in HID lighting circuit, breaker should be listed and rated as HID. Article 240.83(D)

 

[dwilliams35]

You're also going to lose the 3-way switches: you'll have to walk across a dark shop to turn on the lights from whichever entrance you're coming in. What you've got on that print isn't any big deal at all to wire.