Hmmmmm.
Some of my rooms have multiple lights so finding the JB with the power in and switch cable is going to take a little while, particularly in teh kitchen with 10 GU10 LEDs, plus thats a total load of 10 x 4w which is too much for this....
Sounds like an enquiry is due to the manufacturer/supplier
Whats the combustion point of plasterboard? 451 fahrenheit? :-)
and for rockwool fibreglass being much higher as its literally made of glass?
That reminds me, the instructions say Resistive LED must NOT be used, only IC driver LED.
How can I tell from looking at the LED bulbs as to whether its a resistive LED or an IC driver LED?
>
Even if you don't know your way around (and very few people that haven't been darkroom trained can move safely in the pitch dark) the thing to do is stay still for at least 2 minutes and preferably 5 minutes. By that time you eyes will have dark adapted and you will be able to see chinks of light around the curtains and if you are lucky some outlines.
The night sky is comparatively bright even during a power cut unless you are in the most pristine locations. It helps a lot to have one or two easily findable LED torches about. A 1M resistor across the on/off switch of the ones that take 3 cells will give enough glow to find it by without adversely affecting battery life.
Standard emergency lights only last long enough to allow an orderly evacuation of a public building so 30 mins to an hour at most.
That isn't going to cut it during a 3-4 hour evening power cut. Scheduled power cuts that you can plan for don't require emergency lighting.
The whole idea of doing it in every room is *barking MAD*.
Do you know all the relevant facts of the OP's premises? If not speaking with such absolute conviction seems to me....
or in one of the OP's rooms without any windows.
Three hours seems to be standard and mine do that much on test. They might run longer, as they are still bright after three hours, but I've not tested longer than that.
For you, perhaps, but we don't know why the OP wants to do it that way. He may have a particular need to be able to have that much light.
Bullshit. And very few places are pitch dark when the mains has failed.
Even better to have a few of the led torches which are plugged into a mains socket which come on if the mains has failed and it is dark so you can find them trivially and see well enough to move around.
But the led torches which are plugged into a mains socket which come on if the mains has failed are much better and you just take the torch off the mains adapter and take it wherever you need light.
Not that so much as overdoing it considerably.
ISTR there are bigger units out there for supporting larger 4 x strip light luminaires typically used in suspended ceiling applications.
Yup, or another brand / model may make it more explicit.
Neither PB or rockwool are likely to be fire risks, although I would try not to embed something like this in rockwool - sat on it would be OK IMHO.
They might be saying, don't use with a traditional iron transformer...
Hanging round to wait for your vision to dark adapt might not be desirable if the reason that the power is out is because of a fire, and you have just been woken by smoke alarms.
To be called an emergency light it must have a run time of at least 3 hours.
(In commercial settings, there must be an an annual test of run time, and the batteries replaced on any units that don't reach that)
Not going to make a good epitaph thought is it?
Can you do it when just woken, in smoke, when drunk etc. Your life may depend on the answer.
Now can everyone else in the house, including guests that are not so familiar with the layout.
Every room - perhaps, but then again we don't actually know what the OPs requirements and needs are.
I have balance problems, very early cataracts and poor eyesight contrast sensitivity so a torch in a room simply does not cut it.
The whole room needs to be lit during a power cut to keep myself safe. (The vestibular system relies on eyesight too believe it or not, and my eyesight sensitivity means I can't pick out objects visually and my cataracts means I have to have higher levels of illumination.
It strikes me it would be more cost effective to put 4 bigger battery packs next to the home CU to do the 4 lighting circuits (ground, 1st floor, Loft and garage/outside lights than it is to go round every single light fitting poking in inverters and Li Ion batteries.....
(Quick mentral calculation:
ground floor is 42 off 4 watt bulbs = 168 watts max load.
1st floor is 23 off 4 watt bulbs so thats 96 watts max load.loft is two flourries currently but can change this. (I know this one sounds daft but it was done for the day when we have a loft conversion and made into a full lighting circuit)
The garage/outside is 2 flourries (can change), 2.4 m LED batten and 14
10w or 20w LED floods and 5 5 LED bulbs.SO have wondered about using some computer UPS next to consumer unit but I don't think an UPS would last for 3 hours or more unless anyone knows different?
S.
IME, more like ten minutes or less.
You might be better off with a generator and changeover switch - that will give full power (not electric showers etc) for hours.
You were right that we needed to know the reasons behind the strange request but it turns out that "emergency lights" is rather misleading.
Restricting usage of the premises to critical rooms during power cuts would make a lot more sense otherwise it quickly gets very expensive.
It depends how many of the lights you have on at the same time. ISTR at 50W load a moderate capacity UPS will last about an hour. eg
They are designed to expect a PC ~100W + monitor ~30W after all.
You can get industrial strength ones that will last longer and accept much bigger batteries but again they have minimum load expectations.
+1That is the more appropriate solution now we have more detail about the problem that is to be solved. Not easily done as a DIY job though. It also has the bonus of keeping the freezer going (assuming you size it right) which is what my generator is primarily intended for.
First anniversary of the storm Arwen MFU at end of this month.
Is it essential that you have a system which cuts in automatically if power cuts off? Or would you settle for one which you could turn on manually when there is a power cut (or in advance of a scheduled cut)?
If cataracts are manifest and an optahmologist agrees, then you should get them fixed immediately. There's no reason at all to delay. The opthamologist can put you in for treatment.
Good points and well made :-)
In total load terms that is not a huge amount. Yes a UPS will do the trick. What you tend to find with most "integrated" UPS devices is they have battery capacity to provide a few mins of support at full load, and then the time extends at lower loads. However for many there is an upper limit on run time due to the parasitic losses running the inverter. So You might get an hour and a half out of a large one - but that would be the run time even with no external load at all.
The solution is to move away from integrated UPS solutions where the only battery capacity available is that which is contained in the box, to one where you can add additional capacity.
At it's simplest level this might be by modding a normal integrated one with more batteries, or looking at slightly more commercially focussed options. Then you can usually design not only the load you need to support, but also the run time you need.
Many of the UPS vendors sites have selection tools that let you specify the load and run time, and they can offer product combinations that match.
e.g. start with:
or both - UPS to give non interrupted support for say 20 mins. Gen to take over if extended cover required.
They don't trickle charge - they charge at quite a high rate so they're fully charged for use again quickly. The ones I have don't have any smarts inside to reduce the charging current when the batteries are fully charged, and they use special high temperature batteries which can stand a continuous high current charge rate.
So several of them will start costing you in electricity use.
I rolled my own in a few rooms which run from a 12V alarm supply, and use the alarm motion sensors as occupancy sensors so they're only on when mains fails, it's dark, and there's movement in the room. These don't add anything to the base load except for a single mains relay (probably about ½watt) which signals to the controller if lighting circuit mains power is on or not. (The controller does have its own mains fail detection, but it's got a 30 second delay to filter out short glitches, so not ideal for emergency lighting switching.)
Not massively difficult either:
and CH running...
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