Battery room Lighting

[power2020]

Hi!
Anyone please give the IEC/IEEE standard which recommends Flame proof/Explosion proof lighting requirement for Flooded lead acid/Nicd battery room.
Advanced Thanks...

 

[itsmoked]

I didn't know those were requirements of LA rooms since the rooms are suppossed to be well ventilated and there shouldn't actually be a bunch of H₂ around.

Keith Cress
Flamin Systems, Inc.-

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Warpspeed]

I have never seen any special lighting requirements in battery rooms either, but there may be some specific requirements in particular locations, such as down mines.

 

[powerjunx]

power2020,
In our battery banks, simply we use a flourescent lighting fixture but its enclosure is very tough - a flame proof/Explosion proof lighting enclosure with built in arc chute.
About the standard, maybe you better consult battery suppliers or manufacturer.

 

[BJC]

A battery room with lead acid batteries is Class 1 division 2. Hydorgen being Group B.
It means that hydrogen doesn't show up very often but once in a while you can have concentrations that will blow the doors off the room.
Supposedly changing the air in the room so many times per hour can make the room normal. I have seen this used as an excuse to allow run of the mill fixtures in battery rooms.
If you try it make sure the fan is on standby power. Sometimes it's not and when the batteries are changing from standby power the gas is building up in the room.

 

[stevenal]

IEEE 484 agrees with Warpspeed:

"A battery area that meets the above ventilation requirements should not be considered a classified
(hazardous) location; thus special electrical equipment enclosures to prevent fire or explosion should not be
necessary."

The NESC is more concerned with physical damage:

"145. Illumination for Battery Areas
Lighting fixtures shall be protected from physical damage by guards or isolation. Receptacles and
lighting switches should be located outside of battery areas."

 

[rbalex]

The National Electrical Code has an entire Article on Storage Batteries (Art 480). "Hidden" within the Article is a Section on "Locations" (Sec 480.9). With regard to Hazardous (Classified) locations, there are NO REQUIREMENTs beyond proper ventilation.

 

[arcflash99]

Classification of the room also depends on the size of your room, charge/discharge rates of the batteries, ventilation, size of your batteries.
We have battery banks in substations, in the same room as the switchgear.
Typically, if the total volume of the batteries is less tahn 1% of the total free air volume in the room, H2 evolution is not a problem. That's what I can remember from a class I had a while back on Area Classification (API RP 500).

 

[kmf600]

We have had this question asked at my work many times. As long as the room has an exhaust fan it is not hazardous, but when the fan motor goes bad, or the breaker trips, it becomes hazardous. Besides the lights you also have to look at the outlets and disconnects in the room. They would also have to be explosion proof. By the way, we decided it does not need to be explosion proof.

 

[ruggedscot]

Battery rooms -

use two fans one duty one back up hook up a pressure diff switch to ensure that they switch. Run em off of emergency power dont just hook to ordinary utility boards - when they are charging hydrogen can build. isolator switches outside of the room and lockable.

95% of the time they are safe enough but its rule of thumb when its full of hydrogen is the time that you will have the problem!!!!

rugged

 

[peebee]

See IBC 608.5 "Ventilation shall be provided in accordance with the IMC and ... shall be designed to limit the maximum concentration of hydrogen to 1 percent of the total volume of the room....". See also IBC 609.6.

Frequently, many installations include hydrogen sensors for the battery room to shut down chargers in the event of hydrogen detection. It's unclear to me if there is any code requirement for such detection.