The Building and Life Safety Codes specify where exit signs and emergency lighting must be installed, how much illumination is needed, how long emergency luminaires must stay on after an outage, and how they must perform.

In Section 1008.3.3, the International Building Code (IBC) provides a list of specific rooms and spaces where emergency lighting is required to be installed. These rules are not based on occupancy type, number or required exits or occupant load. The rules are specific to certain types of rooms or spaces where an additional measure of safety is warranted just because of the nature of the room type.

One room that must have emergency lighting according to the IBC is “electrical equipment rooms”. Electrical equipment rooms are not defined in the IBC or the NEC^® which leaves a huge grey area for interpretation.

The electrical inspector enforcing the NEC^® probably won’t require emergency lighting in an employee break room that happens to have a branch circuit panelboard since the panelboard is not a service panel. The building inspector enforcing the IBC might see the small employee break room also as an electrical equipment room because of the panelboard on the wall.

The best bet is to install an emergency light and to remember that an inspector who is unsure of something will always enforce what is most restrictive.

IBC 1008.3.3 Rooms and spaces. In the event of power supply failure, an emergency electrical system shall automatically illuminate all of the following areas:

1. Electrical equipment rooms.
2. Fire command centers.
3. Fire pump rooms.
4. Generator rooms.
5. Public restrooms with an area greater than 300 square feet (27.87 m²).