Emergency lighting to standard conversion?

[MALC0]

Hi there

I have purchased some twin T5 emergency lighting fittings. I have no need for the emergency part and would quite like to strip the battery and the emergency unit. How do I go about rewiring the fitting to omit the emergency unit?

Thanks

 

[Risteard]

Why did you purchase emergency luminaires?

 

[MALC0]

They were cheap at £10 each for dual 5' fittings

 

[bernardgreen]

In many emergency luminaires the tubes are driven by the "emergency unit" which converts the voltage from the battery ( typically less than 12 volts DC ) into a high frequency AC voltage that is high enough to drive the tube(s). The battery is trickle charged from the mains via a battery charger circuit ( part of the "emergency unit" ).

Hence you wil need to retro-fit a complete system of a mains ballast and starter unit in place of the emergency unit.

 

[MALC0]

hmmm Ok, So if I wired them in the maintained switch circuit would they still work as a standard fitting or would the battery switch on when the mains switched off?

 

[bernardgreen]

would the battery switch on when the mains switched off?

Yes the lamp will light when the mains fails. Removing the battery might work. or it might just cause the unit to go into a failure mode with an audible alarm to alert to the need for service to replace the battery.

 

[Taylortwocities]

See if they can work in maintained mode. Some have the ability to do that.

 

[MALC0]

Thank you I'll have a play with them after work and see what happens.

 

[333rocky333]

If its a combi ballast, put the switch line into the Live and link to the Switched live terminal and remove the battery and leads completely, also remove the led and wire, it will eventually fail the inverter but may take years.
If seperate inverter and ballast you could remove the inverter, but would need to join or replace the leads from the endcaps to reach the ballast, plus wire the supply link from the terminal to the ballast rather than through the inverter.

 

[MALC0]

The inverter was sperate so I was able to re wire the ballasts. Thanks for your help.

 

[Risteard]

The inverter was sperate so I was able to re wire the ballasts. Thanks for your help.

It would have made more sense to have purchased the correct luminaires for the job.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Risteard seems to be a supporter of the "Throw Away Society".

Personally, I admire the OP's enterprise. But maybe things are different in the colonies.