How bright are your emergency lights?

[soj]

I found only one thread on emergency lights, but no one really addressed how bright they were. I have a 40X45 shop with no windows and it is pitch dark if the lights are out. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how bright their emergency lighting is. Tell what brand you have, what type of bulb (led, incandescent, halogen, etc.) how many you use and the size of the area they illuminate. Anything else you think is significant. I know they will not provide enough light to work by, but am wondering how many I will need to be able to get across the shop to the exit door.
TIA

 

[larry_g]

I have never considered emergency lighting for my one man shop. I can't remember one instance of a power outage in the last 20+ years I have had a home shop. For enough light to exit the shop I would think 40 watts would be enough. I have a pair of 40 watt lights above my stairs that light the whole shop (36x36) enough to go in and find something.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[matt151617]

What about one of those battery push LED lights? You could mount it to the front of your workbench. Personally I wouldn't bother though, I always have my cell phone on me, and either use the screen light from that or a flashlight app.

 

[aandpdan]

40 watt? Flourescent?

Get an "emergency ballast." It looks like a regular ballast but contain a small backup battery. It all can fit in the fixture.

You may need to do some rewiring as while it can be switched on/off like normal it does require a constant hot to keep it charged.

Mine last about 45 min - 1 hr.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You probably found THIS THREAD which I started in Nov 2010. The one light I have works well for providing enough light to see to get out, but I need another for the other door, exit area.

The one I have I snagged at the Habitat ReStore for $20. It was new from Home Depot, probably donated by HD due to being a black one and the black model was discontinued. They still make them in white, waiting to catch one on clearance with an out of date battery These fixtures are about $40 retail and the same one with a LED bulb system is about $50.

There are also fluorescent light strips made with back up batteries in them. At work, all of the hallway lights were replaced with T5HO except for the 8 ft T8 single bulb units with the back up battery and a little red led glowing to show it is charged. They just mounted a new fixture next to the old one and left them as the emergency lighting.

The LED exit sign in the pic provides a lot of light and uses 4 NiCad AA batteries as the backup power. One of the battery packs recently went bad and I built a new one from a 4 x AA battery holder from Radio Shack and some NiCad AA's used in the solar outdoor garden and walkway lights (everything else went to NiMH and cannot be safely charged with the charging system in the lights)

I HAVE been caught in the shop during a power outage at nite, and its a real trick finding your way out without tripping and injuring yourself.

Charles

 

[ptgb]

However bright an iPhone screen is, is how bright my emergency lighting is...

 

[Charles (in GA)]

You might seriously look at THIS LIGHT from 1000Bulbs.com as this is quite similar to the Lithonia Light I have, and from the description uses the same 6v 7ah sealed lead acid battery. For the money (less than $20), if shipping is not too much, I may just buy one and quit waiting to find one on clearance.

If you work for a company, or in a facility that takes safety seriously, and pay attention, you will learn the value of having emergency equipment such as exit signs, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers (inspected and functional) and with signage to locate them, flammables cabinets, dirty rag containers, etc.

Looked at shipping from 1000bulbs, was rather high (to me) at $12.25 however, the shipping from 1000bulbs to me if I buy it on Amazon (with 1000bulbs as the seller) is only $8.96 (go figure!!!)

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

This site always costs me money. I've been wanting to install another emergency light (60x60 building with a lot of junk in it and two man doors). Anyhow this thread got me to thinking (thats dangerous!!) and after seeing the light I mentioned above by Exitronic/Barron Lighting, I read about the company, and while they have factories in China, they have one factory here, and their corporate and design facilities, all in Airzona, so no worse than Lithonia. Apparently they were the first to design a LED exit sign, so they are not new to the business. I found four of their LL 50H exit lights, 6v sealed lead acid battery, two 5w halogen aimable bulbs on Ebay for $10 each and $10 shipping for the first and $2 each one after that. So I bought two of them. This should give me good coverage in the building. I would rather have them and not need them than not have them wishing I did.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Exitronix-Emergency-Lighting-Unit-New-/300839293284

I could end up buying new batteries if these are very old, but they are easily found on the net for about $10-$12 each and I need to order a battery for a computer UPS anyhow. I'll see how well they charge up and hold a charge when I install them. I have the box and wiring in place for one of them, the other will take some work to install it.

Charles

 

[ddawg16]

This site always costs me money.

No ****..........

Damn.....something else to go out and buy...

Good thread.....we need a "like" button.

 

[soj]

This site always costs me money. I've been wanting to install another emergency light (60x60 building with a lot of junk in it and two man doors). Anyhow this thread got me to thinking (thats dangerous!!) and after seeing the light I mentioned above by Exitronic/Barron Lighting, I read about the company, and while they have factories in China, they have one factory here, and their corporate and design facilities, all in Airzona, so no worse than Lithonia. Apparently they were the first to design a LED exit sign, so they are not new to the business. I found four of their LL 50H exit lights, 6v sealed lead acid battery, two 5w halogen aimable bulbs on Ebay for $10 each and $10 shipping for the first and $2 each one after that. So I bought two of them. This should give me good coverage in the building. I would rather have them and not need them than not have them wishing I did.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Exitronix-Emergency-Lighting-Unit-New-/300839293284

I could end up buying new batteries if these are very old, but they are easily found on the net for about $10-$12 each and I need to order a battery for a computer UPS anyhow. I'll see how well they charge up and hold a charge when I install them. I have the box and wiring in place for one of them, the other will take some work to install it.

Charles

Let us know how bright they are when you get them installed.
jp

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Let us know how bright they are when you get them installed.
jp

Well, no emergency light is going to light it up like regular room lights, but the one I have gives you lots of light to find your way thru the maze of workbenches and toolboxes, but the rest of the building is dark, which is why I need the additional ones for full coverage. I've experimented with the one I have, turning off the lights on the back of the house (Glass garage door and man door lets light in so I have to kill everything in the area) and then switch off the breaker the emergency light is on (so it will turn on). More than enough light to move around without stumbling. Even the exit signs give off a red glow that covers a pretty good area.

I'll try and get a pic or two when I'm done.

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Thought I'd revisit this as I installed one of the Exitronic lights I bought off of Ebay. These were halogen bulb models, so they put out a little more light and cost a little more (retail) than standard incandescent bulb models do. I paid $10 each (new old stock) with $12 shipping for the two lights, so $16 each, not bad but turns out, they had 07/08 date codes so the batteries were no good and they were the cheapest brand Chinese batteries they could possibly use. I ended up buying two new Power Sonic 5.5 amp hr SLA (as opposed to the minimum 4.5 amp hr required for the light, and each battery was about $11 and about $3 shipping per battery ( I also ordered a new sealed lead acid battery (SLA) for one of my computer UPS units that was bad.) So now I'm into the lights for about $29 or so each, and I could have bought current new models for a little more, but I have better batteries. The Exitronic units are a real bear to open up, so difficult that I made labels with my Brother label maker and applied the labels for the procedure to open them. Based on this alone, I would not consider any more of this brand.

I took four pics, one of the workbench area (ignore the clutter, I hope to make some of it go away soon, it comes and goes, and three or four of those are active projects in work) and the red glow is from the exit light being on. The second pic is the same area with the Lithonia emergency light on, this is a incandescent bulb model, and what you see is the light from one of the two lamps, the other is aimed another direction.

The third pic is the other end of the building, again the red glow from the exit light, and the forth is with the Exitronic emergency light on. You can see the far wall 60 ft away, and the yellow zero turn mower behind the sawhorse, that is in the far edge of the bright light area, is about 30 ft away. (hard to hold the camera still for a slow shutter, so the last shot is a little fuzzy, but you "get the picture".

These pics are a pretty good replication of what I was seeing with my own eyes in this dark building.

In any case, the exit lights are good peace of mind, and I am working on installing the other one now (probably should put it in the house instead).

Charles

 

[Sureshot]

I have those lights and you just close your eyes for a few seconds if the power goes out and they quickly adjust to the low light.

I have a fire extinguisher beside every exit as well.

 

[soj]

Charles, based on your review and pics I ordered two of the same lights from the ebay vendor. Where did you get your replacement batteries? I will wait and see if the batteries are bad, but I suspect they will be. I will let you know if I need your instructions to open the case.
jp

 

[Charles (in GA)]

I bought the batteries from atbatt.com

I have also dealt with PPS (Portable Power Systems, in Denver) and have not bought from, Batterymart.com but would not hesitate to try them as they apparently have good customer reviews.

The batteries I bought were a little higher than I recall, they were $12.99 each but I got the "tuesday special" which is 10% off..

The basic battery is a 6v 4.5 ah SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) and you want an F1 terminal (F1 is a .187" spade and F2 is a .250 spade)

Battery Mart has a black case no name as low as $7.95

I bought the Power Sonic PSH-655FR which is the higher 5.5 ah in the same case, but a "flame resistant" case, which I figured might be a good thing.

The dimensions are 2.76 wide x 1.85 deep x 3.94 high, this is a very common size and you can find dozens of different batteries in this voltage, terminal and physical size, just depends on what you chose.

Lithonia uses the same battery except theirs is a ba$tard design with one F1 and one F2 terminal, so you have to have adapters or change one of the spade ends on the light fixture wire. Home Depot sells the genuine Lithonia branded battery, but they want over $20 for it, which is crazy, except that in a business setting, you might have to have it to meet codes and certification of the fixture, and it would be a liability issue if you used any other brand of battery.

If you have computer uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) at home and they have batteries getting old, open them up and get new ones at the same time, combining the shipping and saving you some money.

Charles

 

[Teken]

I bought the batteries from atbatt.com

I have also dealt with PPS (Portable Power Systems, in Denver) and have not bought from, Batterymart.com but would not hesitate to try them as they apparently have good customer reviews.

The batteries I bought were a little higher than I recall, they were $12.99 each but I got the "tuesday special" which is 10% off..

The basic battery is a 6v 4.5 ah SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) and you want an F1 terminal (F1 is a .187" spade and F2 is a .250 spade)

Battery Mart has a black case no name as low as $7.95

I bought the Power Sonic PSH-655FR which is the higher 5.5 ah in the same case, but a "flame resistant" case, which I figured might be a good thing.

The dimensions are 2.76 wide x 1.85 deep x 3.94 high, this is a very common size and you can find dozens of different batteries in this voltage, terminal and physical size, just depends on what you chose.

Lithonia uses the same battery except theirs is a ba$tard design with one F1 and one F2 terminal, so you have to have adapters or change one of the spade ends on the light fixture wire. Home Depot sells the battery, but they want over $20 for it, which is crazy, except that in a business setting, you might have to have it to meet codes and certification of the fixture, and it would be a liability issue.

If you have computer uninterruptable power supplies (UPS) at home and they have batteries getting old, open them up and get new ones at the same time, combining the shipping and saving you some money.

Charles

+1 for Battery Mart! My Battery Tender came from them and the service was most excellent along with reasonable USPS shipping from USA to Canada.

Their prices are fair and competitive to others on the interwebs. They can and will make custom batteries for most domestic items on the market if asked.

Just a over all good American company to deal with.

Teken . . .

 

[Charles (in GA)]

40 watt? Flourescent?

Get an "emergency ballast." It looks like a regular ballast but contain a small backup battery. It all can fit in the fixture.

You may need to do some rewiring as while it can be switched on/off like normal it does require a constant hot to keep it charged.

Mine last about 45 min - 1 hr.

These are crazy expensive, running upwards of $100 even at 1000bulbs.com or similar discount place.

I stumbled into ten or twelve of these at the Habitat ReStore (the've been there about a year) and talked them from $10 to $5 when I explained that they were 10 years old according to the date code and the batteries were probably not any good. On top of that, they have, on the decal on the unit "This is a sealed unit. Integral battery is not replaceable. Replace entire unit when necessary. "

I get home and find the cover is put on with Torx screws. Then I discover they are tamper proof torx, so I get out my tamper proof T15 tip and put it in my trusty Snap On ratcheting screwdriver and open it up. What I find is a NiCad battery, according to the label on it, Lithonia p/n ELB0364N and it has spade connectors on the ends and looks like 3 D cells end to end.

I connected a cord to the power wires and it is "charging" so I'll see if the battery is any good in a day or two. The instructions says to charge for "168 hours to fully charge"

The only places on the net I find replacement batteries is Interstate Batteries and BatteryPlex and they both want $24.99 for the battery. Typical Lithonia, they show a F1 terminal on the negative and a F2 terminal on the positive. Helps keep you from installing an aftermarket battery.

Code that emergency lights are certified to requires a 90 minute minimum run time or the battery or unit is considered no good.

I just bought this to play with, we'll see if its any good.

Charles

 

[soj]

I received the two lights from the eBay vendor. One was a Exitronix LL50H, as advertised. The other was a Royal Pacific Ltd. REL4WH. Different boxes, different names, but the housings look identical. The Royal Pacific box was more shelf worn than the Exitronix. The Exitronix was in a plastic bag, with instructions and a bag of wire nuts and screws. The Royal Pacific was all alone in the box. Even though the Royal Pacific looked to be the oldest, it had the best battery, 5.2V vs 0.5V in the Exitronix.

I did a temporary hook up to see how they would charge up.

BTW, Charles, I didn't have any problem opening the cases, but they don't seem to be very secure when they close. The back panel isn't very tight at the top, which seems could allow the unit to fall away from the wall.
jp

 

[6768rogues]

The power went out one time when I was working in my shop and it was quite a task to get to the exit without bumping or tripping on the way. I put a battery op two bulb emergency light on the wall over the door and wired it to the panel so it goes on if grid power is lost. I later found out that it was handy in a power outage when I was not in the shop because I had light to enter and get the generator out.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The front housing at the top left, just above the electrical connector inside, has to be pushed with much force to make the electrical connector make an the small hook of front housing flex over the back housing, right at the point where the two tiny slots are cut on each side at the top of the back. There are small ribs in the front housing that have to fit in the slots and push extremely hard to make it snap in place (the one on the right snaps over with ease, the one on the left wont snap without extreme force as the housing doesn't flex at this point due to the circuit board mounting.

One of mine had been opened and was just the light fixture, the other was in a plastic bag with a bag with wirenuts and instructions, just as yours were.

I wirenutted cords to the wires and left them lay open on the workbench to charge for several days (the reason I didn't post earlier) and the batteries never did charge up. New batteries seem to work fine in them. I have the last light mounted now.

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Well, with the power outage Monday evening, the emergency light batteries got tested to see how long they last.

The two new Exitronic lights with the new Power Sonic batteries lasted an hour and 55 minutes, well over the 90 minutes they are required to test to.

My original light, the Lithonia, with its original battery (a 2008 vintage IIRC) failed in less than an hour, so it will be getting a new battery.

The two exit signs, one had a battery pack I had built from a AA times 4 battery holder and soldered the old connector/cord to it and installed four NiCads in it (hard to find now, only used in solar walkway lights and such) and it lasted almost three hours, while the other one, with the original and quite old NiCad battery pack failed rather quickly, so I went to Radio Shack and bought another AA x 4 battery holder and a pack of AA NiCads and soldered up the wires and installed it.

Working on an order to ATBatt.com now, for about four batteries (a couple of my computer UPS's batteries are getting old so I will just replace them).

We were without power for just over 6 hrs, GA power and the local EMC (which also serves this area) both did a fantastic job of restoring power.

This storm got a lot of roofs and a lot of cars, and a few houses and other stuff. Didn't hear of anyone getting hurt, even though there was one tornado just east of me that was on the ground for over 13 miles. Timber growers may be upset however as they lost a lot of trees.

Charles

 

[soj]

I bought two batteries from an Amazon vendor (Battery Supersite). Two 4.5 Ah for $15.39 including shipping. I am knee deep in other projects right now and haven't had time to install. They both had 6.2V out of the box.

Also, a side note on the lights i bought on eBay. I don't remember if it was the Exitronix or the Royal Pacific, but on one of them, only one bulb would light up. I first thought it was shipped with a bad bulb, but when I removed the bulb, it just wasn't plugged in. Monday morning quality control lives in China!

Thanks again to Charles for the great info and help with this project.
jp

 

[Blk88GT]

I've got this one from Lowes:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_253631-2670...rrentURL=?Ntt=utilitech+green+exit&facetInfo=

The brightness of the backup lights is somewhat disappointing. Although the "EXIT" portion is nice and bright. Go figure.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

The brightness of the backup lights is somewhat disappointing. Although the "EXIT" portion is nice and bright. Go figure.

Emergency lighting is like that. If its good and dark, it provides plenty of light to see your way out by, but just looking at them in a lit room, they don't look like they could do anything.

Charles

 

[Blk88GT]

Come on Charles, I didn't test it in the daylight! I did it at night with the lights off! LOL

It just wasn't nearly as bright as I had hoped for.

 

[Cryptic1911]

However bright an iPhone screen is, is how bright my emergency lighting is...

Same here.. We just stumble around in the dark with a phone

 

[Charles (in GA)]

Thought I'd bring this back to life for a moment. My Lithonia emergency light, the black housing one pictured in post #5 of this thread, had a 2008 battery and it only lasted about 45 minutes or less during a recent power failure (we lost power Sunday night a week ago when we had high winds blowing trees over and limbs falling). Anyhow, it uses the same basic 6v 4.5ah sealed lead acid battery the Exitronic lights used. Only one catch, Lithonia, in a effort to make you buy the battery from them, (and yes, Home Depot stocks the Lithonia ELB06042 battery for about $22), Lithonia has these batteries special made with a odd mix of terminals.

Normally, a battery like this has a F1 flat spade terminal, F1 is 3/16" or .187" wide, while an F2 terminal is ¼" or .250" wide.

What Lithonia does is have the battery manufactured with a F1 negative terminal and an F2 positive terminal (Cooper does this also). This makes it necessary to either 1) use the correct Lithonia battery, or 2) cut the terminal end off of the positive wire and replace it with a male F1 terminal and use any generic replacement battery, or 3) use an F1 to F2 adapter on the positive terminal of a generic replacement battery.

Now, this is a piece of building emergency equipment, and in a commercial use, you would have some liability in substituting something other than exactly what the manufacturer recommends. For me, I don't care, so I bought a better battery, another one of the Power Sonic 6v 5.5ah high capacity batteries, and a F1 to F2 adapter.

Look at the pics, you can figure it out. Lithonia supplied original battery is on the left, the new Power Sonic battery is on the right without and with the adapter.

Charles

 

[soj]

Charles, thanks for bringing this back up. And thanks for all your help by posting what you have tried and your results.

I installed my lights from eBay (with new batteries) last week. One over the exit door and one on the other side of the shop. Testing at night, they provide enough light that I can see to walk anywhere in the shop (40
x45).

So, to answer my original question, mine are plenty bright enough for the intended purpose, to get me safely out of an otherwise dark building.

Thanks again to all who contributed to this thread.
jp