MK neon glow surrounds for light switches

T

toasty

Fitted a couple of these last night to the upstairs and downstairs hallway light switches.

They look really smart I reckon and the missus agrees. :D

They glow an eeerie green colour when the lights are off. :evil:

All part of my "plan your escape in the event of a fire" preparations. First step, find the light switch.
 
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Don't count on them being there in a fire evacuation. If the power had gone then the glow will not be there.

Practise the evacuation in the dark or blind folded. That is more realistic in a fire situation.
 
or fit an emergency light to the top of the stairs, and one in the hallway..

I am making a system for my mothers house that charges a battery pack in the garage and a couple of mains relays to switch power on to some 12v spots on the stairs.. looks better than those standard emergency lights..
 
The stand-alone emergency lights ( that come on when power fails ) are the best option. Reason for saying that is that they will illuminate what ever happens to the wiring in the house during the fire.

Using a remote power source for the emergency lamp requires that the cable to the lamp survives the fire long enough to evacuate the building. That may not happen.
 
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wired in singles silicone glass 2.5mm.. clipped to the joists.. ( only 12V.. ) should withstand a fire long enough to get out.. will last longer than the wiring to the smoke detectors will..

more for power cuts and the like than for fire..
 
Fair point re: power cuts, mine are on a ups so more likely to be working, but of course depending on how established the fire is will affect this.

I've also got some pretty tasty smoke detectors, so I should know about it fairly soon.
 
ColJack said:
or fit an emergency light to the top of the stairs, and one in the hallway..

I am making a system for my mothers house that charges a battery pack in the garage and a couple of mains relays to switch power on to some 12v spots on the stairs.. looks better than those standard emergency lights..

Newlec do a neat little 12 volt spot emergency pack if you've got a bit of room.

I've got a few em lights in my house, one in my little boy's room, one over my fuse board, one in the hall and one in the kitchen, all tested monthly and annually!
 
I have used a flush mount 20w under cupboard capsule fitting for my staircase emergency light. It is super neat, and all powerd from an old veritas alarm panel with a mains relay to switch the light on when the power fails. :D

The panel has a 7Ah battery, so should provide over 3 hours light in a mains fail
 
4.37 hours in theory, but since no battery is 100% efficiant, yeah, stick with over 3 hours
 
breezer said:
4.37 hours in theory

A bit less than that breezer, Ah ratings for batteries are at the 10hour discharge rate, so RFs 7Ah will provide 700mA for 10 hours but not 7Amps for an hour (in fact it will provide 7amps for .5 of an hour)

20W lamp is 1.666Amps at 12volts which would suggest 4.2hours by simply dividing the capacity by the load, but looking at discharge curves reveals that at this rate the battery would discharge in much less than your 4.37hours. 3hours is pretty much on the money.

Where did you get 4.37 from anyway? Surely 7 / (20/12) is 4.2 ?
 
Surely emergency lights are a bit pointless in a domestic setting from a fire safety angle ?

In your standard dwelling any fire serious/developed enough to knock out the lighting circuits is almost certainly going to have created so much smoke/heat that lighting an escape route out of your own house will be the least of your worries. No ?

Personally I can't see how they reduce the risk of death or injury from fire by any appreciable degree.

I've actually seen a report of where faulty wiring on the emergency lighting caused the fire... I think the word is irony !

This is why they are mainly the purview of multi-occupancy buildings.... flats/hotels/rest-homes etc, where a fire could knock out the lighting but yet be some way away from the bedrooms. Unlikely in a normal house surely.... that's why no regulations require them for single occupancy dwellings.

Mind you I can see the point of having one by say the CU etc for convenience.

I do....it's called a torch :)



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Being proved wrong means you've learnt something
 
LondonRay said:
I've actually seen a report of where faulty wiring on the emergency lighting caused the fire... I think the word is irony !

Not as ironic as a FAP going up in flames ;)

The ems in my house are more for power cuts than a fire knocking out the lights + I always have a large stock of them on the van for repairs.
 

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