Shop Safety - Exit Signs... or rather Lowes Pricing Crazyness

For quite some time now I've been thinking that a couple of EXIT signs over the mandoors would be a good thing. My shop is a 60x60 aircraft hangar with two man doors and LOTS of junk. Just like the fire extinguishers and signs, I figured that having a way to find the exits at night when the power fails or in a smokey building would be a good thing. Problem is, everyone thinks so highly of their exit signs that, even when discounted or on clearance or Ebay, they are still pricey, and you gotta have LED type signs or you will spend a bundle in electricity (hydro to you folks north of the border).

So I walk into Lowes and find a whole pile of these fancy clear Lexan Exit signs with LED illumination and back up batteries (four AA ni-mh heat shrinked together). They were on a roll around rack up front with a bunch of other clearance stuff. Originally $78, marked down to $68, then reduced by half to $34. Well, $68 for two of them is still more than I cared to spend for a luxury or non-necessity item. A few days later I walk in and the rack is in the back aisle, next to a rack of light bulbs on clearance. Woman working the area says the bulbs are half of the clearance price, but nothing else. I ask about the signs, she says ask the manager, he would probably mark them down. I take one up front and ask for the manager, but the head cashier says they are "half of the lowest price" (meaning $17), so I go to the back to get one more. I tell the woman in the back what they said and she mumbled that that was not right and it had to be the manager that makes the markdown decision...... however since they already told me that, get on up there and pay for them right then! While I walking up front she is on the phone to the front chewing them out!, but I walked out with two signs for $34 total and several 300w and 500w quartz tubes for real cheap as spares for my task lighting and wall floods.

Got them mounted, batteries charged and they work OK when you trip the breaker or push the test button. Lets hope the LEDs last a long time!

Yes the back door sign is mounted offset. The bracket was drilled such that I could do that, and it moved it a couple of inches closer to the door that way. I already had all the boxes, hardware, conduit, unistrut, etc., so it was a matter of spending all afternoon doing the install.

Next up, some emergency lighting.

Charles

So - let me get this straight - you've been thinking about getting some exit signs. Definitely not something you see on sale often (or ever in my case). And you walk into Lowes one day - find them on clearance - and then pay half the clearance price.
You ****. And I mean that in the sense that I actually kinda detest you right now. And I will PM you a shopping list OK?

Sweet deal! Those are nice signs!

not to mention the fact that your shop is twice the size of most of our houses, or more than 3 times the size of the house I used to own in LA!

Gotta love lowes and the crazy prices. I have gotten several tools/ random stuff for practically free just got to look for them.

Not a bad deal. You should of got one with the lights and exit sign in one.


Last year we got a back up genorator for the barns so up untill recently we had to have exit signs.

nolatoolguy said:

Not a bad deal. You should of got one with the lights and exit sign in one.


Last year we got a back up genorator for the barns so up untill recently we had to have exit signs.

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Well, if they had any of those (on clearance), I'd looked at getting them, but I'm cheap and darn sure not going to pay the regular price for them. Someday I'll stumble onto an emergency light fixture right.

Problem with old stock and clearance items like this is the batteries are a big question mark, are they any good? or will they need replacing. The fixtures I got were made in 09/08 so the batteries were not too old, they charged right up.

Charles

Codes vary, but if you really want to be able to see the sign when crawling around in a smoky room, hang them about 2-3 feet off the floor.

You see this in some hotel hallways in various cities. I've never understood why they don't require it everywhere? It's quite possible you won't be able to see that sign that's mounted 7' high, above the door, when you could easily see the one that's 2' high, next to the door.

Don't know about other areas but I see those exit signs on Craig's List pretty often. Give it a try and you might get the long CL deal.

Exit signs make sense in many situations, but this wasn't one of them: I needed to pull a permit for a huge open sided canopy that was to be erected for a corporate function. Once the canopy was in place, the building inspector came by and made me hang exit signs every 20 feet on the edge of the canopy so people could figure out how to get out from under the canopy in the event of a problem. Just one more bit of evidence that you have to fail an IQ test to get certain jobs...

I used emergency lights instead of exit signs. Exit signs are intended to direct people not familiar with where the exit is located. I know where my exits are located. I figured that an emergency light at the exit would point out to me where the exit is and would provide some light to get to it without hitting my head on a lift arm (guess how I know that can happen).
Nonetheless, I applaud you for improving the safety level of your building and I would buy some at that price, too.

Mattlt said:

Codes vary, but if you really want to be able to see the sign when crawling around in a smoky room, hang them about 2-3 feet off the floor.

You see this in some hotel hallways in various cities. I've never understood why they don't require it everywhere? It's quite possible you won't be able to see that sign that's mounted 7' high, above the door, when you could easily see the one that's 2' high, next to the door.

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Thats great in a hotel hallway, no where to go but one end or the other, just get down against one wall and go till you get to the sign. In a large square building filled with cars, airplanes, hydraulic press, drill press, workbenches, tractor, etc., you would never find the exit with a sign down low. I more expected it to be of use at night when the power fails.

6768rogues said:

I used emergency lights instead of exit signs. Exit signs are intended to direct people not familiar with where the exit is located. I know where my exits are located. I figured that an emergency light at the exit would point out to me where the exit is and would provide some light to get to it without hitting my head on a lift arm (guess how I know that can happen).
Nonetheless, I applaud you for improving the safety level of your building and I would buy some at that price, too.

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Emergency lights are on the list, as soon as I find some at the right price. The exit signs add some light at night, you can actually find your way around with the red glow from them, and I don't expect to be the only person in the building. Same reason I mounted signs showing where the fire extinguishers are, I know where they are, but visitors might not.

Kinda a novelty if nothing else.

Charles

Thursday, November 18, 2010...................... Well its six months later, and I thought I bring this thread back up. I took some heat for not installing battery powered emergency lighting (see below) but as I noted in my response, when I find something for the right price................. Well, today, I walked into the Habitat For Humanity's ReStore, where they sell all kinds of new and used stuff that is donated to them that they cannot use in their home builds. Home Depot is one of their regular contributors, giving them all of their display ceiling fans and display light fixtures when they are taken down, along with some slow moving or old or obsolete or discontinued stock.

Today, I went to the ReStore to look for a very old Milwaukee SawsAll in its metal box. I saw it yesterday and passed it up. It was a very old, aluminum housing model, heavy as He11 and in its metal case. I got to thinking I should have got it, but today it was gone............ whew! saved me $25 I didn't need to spend................

So I looked around and spotted, sitting on top of a cabinet of lighting oddities, bulbs, etc, up out of the normal line of sight, was a emergency light fixture. The box was still sealed with the factory strapping tape and I examined it and found it was only about a year old. It had two strikes going against it..... it is BLACK in color, which is unusual, most you see are ivory or white, and it was slightly over a year old, which is a problem with an item with a battery in it (lead acid rechargable, replacable type) I figure Home Depot (it had their sticker on it) got rid of it due to being in stock too long and no demand, probably not even a place on the shelf for it. Needless to say, for twenty bucks, I grabbed it.

So I replaced two short pieces of unistrut with one six foot long piece, added another four inch box on top of the existing one, and mounted the emergency lights. The original box, the one in the middle, supplies a section of BX that runs across to a 4 inch box on top of a piece of unistrut mounted on a workbench that the 3 in one mill/drill/lathe unit is mounted on. This and the drill press are plugged into this circuit. It was easy to add another box underneath for the exit sign, and just about as easy to add another on top for the emergency lights.

My JLG scissor lift made short work of changing out the unistrut and mounting the box and fixture, easier than standing on a ladder.

Charles

6768rogues said:

I used emergency lights instead of exit signs. Exit signs are intended to direct people not familiar with where the exit is located. I know where my exits are located. I figured that an emergency light at the exit would point out to me where the exit is and would provide some light to get to it without hitting my head on a lift arm (guess how I know that can happen).
Nonetheless, I applaud you for improving the safety level of your building and I would buy some at that price, too.

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Charles (in GA) said:

Emergency lights are on the list, as soon as I find some at the right price. The exit signs add some light at night, you can actually find your way around with the red glow from them, and I don't expect to be the only person in the building. Same reason I mounted signs showing where the fire extinguishers are, I know where they are, but visitors might not.

Kinda a novelty if nothing else.

Charles

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Not a novelty. Smart thinking and cheap insurance. You done good - AGAIN!