Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
(OP)
Is there any requirement in the NEC or NFPA 99 about emergency lighting percentage in operating rooms? Our practice has been to include 50% of the lighting on emergency power, 50% on normal power and 100% of medical task lighting on emergency power. (We also provide some lighting on battery power) Is this just a general practice or is it a requirement? Do people believe that 100% of the lighting in ORs should be on emergency power? or is 50/50 a safer bet?
SparksRfun
"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you madder than a wet bobcat"






RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
I'm not sure about the current NFPA requirements.
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
Rafiq Bulsara
http://www.srengineersct.com
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
http://www.cfm.va.gov/til/dManual/dmELhosp.pdf
SparksRfun
"The truth will set you free, but first it will make you madder than a wet bobcat"
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
Rafiq Bulsara
http://www.srengineersct.com
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
RE: Operating Rooms - Emergency Lighting
At the time, there was a JCAHO (Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) probe that required some percentage of OR lights to be on normal power only -- though you had the option of arranging a separate transfer switch to power them from the mechanical (not life safety, not critical) branch of the backup system as long as it was kept physically remote. It's taken from the VA guidelines I think.
Their thinking was to help insure separate physical conduit runs from multiple directions -- in the event of earthquake or civil unrest or other disaster that took out the emergency distribution, you'd still maybe have another intact set of wires heading to the operating room that could be used.
We put battery ballasts in all the fluorescents anyway. No limit on that stuff.
Good on y'all,
Goober Dave