Regular testing and maintenance of emergency
lighting systems is required by law. The PALS™ addressable emergency lighting
systems offers it's users simplicity, versatility, ease of use and reliability
whilst taking responsibility for the important job of monitoring, testing
and maintaining test records of an emergency lighting installation.
Each luminaire is fitted with an analogue addressable communications device
which is connected to a two core data communication loop which transmits
to and from the PALS™ control panel. The system operates pro-actively rather
than passively and the PALS™ control panel communicates with every luminaire
every 15 seconds to ensure that the luminaire is not only in a healthy condition
but is still connected to the system.
Where the PALS™ system finds it is unable to communicate with a luminaire
the fault is reported as a communication error. This aspect of the PALS™
system provides a positive advantage over passive systems in that PALS™
communicates faults within the installation, as well as luminaires and local
supply failures almost instantly.
Installation requirements
PALS™ system uses an analogue addressable control panel which is microprocessor
based and is programmed with the operating software and site specific information.
This includes the type and location of each emergency luminaire within the
system. It does not require an external computer for any of its functions.
The luminaires are connected to the panel via a data communication loop
and each luminaire is provided with its own address number (up to 126 per
loop) which is easily preset at our factory or locally with a DIL switch.
The standard PALS™ can be supplied with up to 4 loops but larger systems
can be supplied to special order.
A complete data loop is the preferred method of installation. The panel
loop outputs and each addressable luminaire has integral short-circuit isolators
to prevent data corruption or damage occurring in the event of a short circuit
at any point in the communication loop.
In self contained emergency lighting systems, the emergency luminaires are
connected to the appropriate local lighting circuit in the normal way (as
required by BS5266), to provide the un-switched supply for the purposes
of providing the battery charge supply. In the slave systems the mains supply
is monitored to provide sub-circuit protection.
The PALS™ control panel requires a 230V ac supply (alternative voltage models
are available) and is fitted with an integral power supply. When ordered
with the optional maintenance free sealed recombination lead acid battery
this is able to maintain operation in the event of failure of the control
panel supply.
The
PALS™ Control Panel
The PALS™ analogue addressable control panel can be supplied pre-programmed
with the site specific data relating to the installation. Changes and updates
can be made easily either by using a compatible PC or by using the on-board
alpha-numeric keypad which uses text prompts and yes/no routines to make
programming both simple and quick. To ensure the security of the system,
changes can only be made through the engineer's access routines all of which
are pass coded in order to gain entry.
The panel displays information relating to the system status upon an eighty
character back-lit liquid crystal display. When programmed to provide information
upon the location of a luminaire, twenty characters are available for describing
the area of the luminaire (zone) and a further twenty can be used to specifically
describe the exact location. The remainder of the display is then used to
provide information regarding the nature of the fault.
Within the panel is a five hundred event memory log which can be accessed
using the keypad and read upon the LCD display. A printer can be provided
either separately or integral to the PALS™ control panel to provide a hard
copy of the event log, or the PALS™ system can be interfaced with a compatible
computer.
PALS™ control panels can have mimic panels provided where the information
needs to be available at more than one point within an installation. For
large sites and multi-users, panels can also be networked together either
by hard-wiring or via modems through the telephone network. For the ultimate
in ease of identification and control, a PC based graphic package offering
full system control and interrogation facilities, with visual event location
can be supplied.
The Test Routine
The PALS™ system is designed to provide users with a secure, superbly reliable
system for automatic testing of emergency luminaires with continuous monitoring
of the system achieved through state of the art analogue technology.
Test routines can be programmed to take place automatically at selected
times. To satisfy the requirements of BS5266 Part 1, EN50172 or other local
requirements, it is very easy to program in your own test requirements.
For instance, these may be at weekends for office premises or holidays for
shops, when the premises are most likely to be empty and time can be given
for the batteries in the emergency lighting luminaires to recharge before
the building is occupied again. Alternatively, for premises such as train
stations, continuous process manufacturing plants, elderly persons homes
and hospitals, the test can be carried out on either individual luminaires
or in groups at varying times so a building is never left without some degree
of protection and cover.
Test routines can be activated manually from the control panel for any luminaire,
zone, loop or for the complete system. After any test, either manually or
automatically initiated, a full report is received from each luminaire by
the PALS™ control panel and which optionally can be printed in hard copy.
Any faults found will be displayed upon the PALS™ panel so that the necessary
action can be taken to service or repair the failed emergency luminaire.
For self contained emergency luminaires the test routine is conducted in
the following manner:
1. The emergency luminaire's internal charger is monitored for charge current
with the un-switched supply live to assess the battery and charger condition.
2. The un-switched supply is then interrupted and the discharge current
from the battery is monitored.
3. The light output of the emergency fluorescent lamp is monitored and assessed
throughout the selected duration of the test, for tungsten lamps the current
drawn by the lamp is monitored.
4. When the un-switched supply is re-instated at the end of the discharge
period, the emergency luminaire is checked for a charger healthy condition.
Any failure found, or which takes place during the test routine, is reported
immediately to the PALS ™ control panel.
For Slave systems operated from a central battery system, a similar test
routine is carried out except that the central battery system is also fitted
with a communications device connected to the central system. This device
is required to place the central battery system into the emergency mode
to test the entire system under mains failure load conditions.
Where local sub-circuit monitoring is required, the preferred method of
operation is to use slave luminaires that monitor the local supply individually
as this is the most easily controlled by the PALS™ system. Where contactor
panels are used to monitor local lighting circuits at the lighting distribution
boards, additional communication devices with supporting software will be
required to over-ride the contactor panels during test routines.
Product Selection
The PALS™ panel can only be used with emergency luminaires fitted with DC Emergency Systems Limited
analogue addressable ballasts.
DC Emergency Systems Limited can supply non-maintained, maintained, sustained and slave luminaires
fitted with the PALS™ ballasts as well as a full range of self contained
and slave conversion kits for use in mains fluorescent luminaires up to
70 watt.
Where conversion kits are to be installed within luminaires from a manufacturer
other than DC Emergency Systems Limited we strongly recommend that the conversion be carried out
by ourselves to ensure correct operation. All emergency lighting conversion
kit installation is carried out under ISO9001/2002 in accordance with ICEL1004
and the finished product assessed for CE compliance and then suitably marked
as such.
PALS™ self contained module
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