I was the last one in the building and set the alarm when I left but I couldn’t find the switch(es) for the hall lights. Are they supposed to stay on or be shut off?
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The light switches are at the bottom of the stairs in the boiler room. One set is taped over to keep half of the lights on all the time. The other set should be turned off if they are on.
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I was thinking it was in the boiler room but only looked around at the top of the stairs. Thanks.
I added a note-to-self to see if we can’t come up with a remote switch in a safer and more convenient, perhaps even electronically tied to alarm activation.
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That’s been way down on my to do list…
My plan was to drill a hole in the wall and mount a pair of switches in the hallway so that people wouldn’t have to go into the boiler room to turn off the lights.
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I would not want the lights tied to the alarm. There have been multiple instances of people getting locked in. For them to have to run through the dark hallway to get to the door to disarm the alarm I think is unreasonable.
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It would be trivially simple for the light control to be on something like a 2 minute delay after the alarm is enabled.
Also, it’s simple to interconnect relay controlled lights such that when the alarm is tripped to turn the lights on to allow an authorized person to navigate to the badge scanner. Having the lights turn on when alarm is tripped is desirable function for other obvious reasons.
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Any disabling of lights by an alarm system, can be a problem. If it potentially disables the emergency lighting, Building Codes will not allow that. A remote switch by the alarm panel does make sense.
John
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You are entirely correct. And anything like emergency lighting that shouldn’t be controlled by an accessable switch near the alarm panel shouldn’t be controlled by the alarm status.
If i remember correctly in general doesn’t the emergency lighting only come on when AC power on the emergency lighting circuit is lost? It should be a completely different loop then general lightning otherwise any time someone turned the hall lights out emergency lighting would flip on.
I will have to look up the actual definition of lights, control, emergency lighting, low level type lighting and normal lighting…
My first thought on this thread was Emergency Lighting as in no power to the building, was not wired to the hall lights because they are separate lights and circuits.
Then I thought about the actual hall lights that have two settings. Every light on. OR Every other light on. Most requirements for lighting are based on light available at the floor or some other horizontal surface.
John
I’ll just say it would be neat to have some limited building automation for some of the area lighting. Maybe even set up a relay gate in each class that we can plug into some sort of sign/screen at the alarm showing that room x y or z has lights on so they can recheck for people.
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I would love it if we hooked up some google minis (or similar) and could just say “Check the building for people” and if someone answered… then you would know… and then “Set the alarm” and then it could turn out the lights… well except for the emergency ones… and it could set the thermostats…
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They have a program for maker spaces and the are a Sponsor of the Nation of Makers. This would be something they would support.
Yeah, the emergency lights are wired into building power, which charges the batteries. Whenever they’re cut off from power, they light up on battery power.
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I do not like the idea of having all lighting able to be turned off at the alarm panel. Last year’s issues with people not closing windows should be enough reason to want the last person out to walk the building to check window and door status.
We need to find a better way to detect a window being open. Could we do something with temperature sensors? Cooler or warmer rooms warranting a double check…
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OR permanently close all windows in a room except 1 or 2 and put sensors on those.
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I added a task to my list to look into window latch contact switches for detection. The hope was to come up with a reliable design that not only could tell that the window was closed, but that it was locked also. I was brainstorming with someone a while ago and will revisit it.
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