Sorry for the inexperienced question:
What equipment would you use, to light an outdoor emergency exit ladder, in case of fire alarm activation?
The location has 120VAC electrical power nearby, but no good way to run wires back to the FACP.
The FACP operates on 24VDC and has plenty of spare output capacity.
The ladder itself is intimidating during the day, and worse at night.
Egress lighting is outside of the scope of the fire alarm, I’d take a different approach.
I’d recommend putting a normal flood light connected to the 120vac near the ladder and have it always on. As a backup, put emergency lighting on the same circuit as the 120vac flood light. When the emergency light loses the 120vac connection, it’ll turn on illuminating the ladder. Downside here is it’ll only last a few hours probably.
If I understood your question, you want a light that illuminates an escape ladder that illuminates light when there is an emergency and during normal situations;
Then you would want a light that is illuminated at all times, keyword: normally-on, and has a built in battery backup. The dual-lite Ridge line series is an example of such device, Dual-Lite | Current - HLI Brands.
No, I’d like a light that illuminates ONLY in case of a fire.
It’s undesirable to light this area at all times, as it would interfere with sleep, dark skies, and aesthetics.
During a power outage nobody would use this low quality exit (it’s a really scary ladder).
During a fire, this might be the only viable exit for 50-100 adults and children. The only other
route out is via a stairway likely to be impaired by smoke and acting as a chimney.
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A remote trigger for a normally-off battery backup egress light would do it.
A direct 24V LED egress light hooked to the FACP would function but could raise eyebrows in an inspection. Battery power is more than sufficient given the efficiency of LED’s.
Use those lights, and have a 120v/24v relay hooked coil side from non-resealable power to ALARM realay on the panel. the the light wires the same.
120v in relay, out relay power, light
Is there an RF remote option to trigger the light : basically a FACP certified stretchy wire?
I realized one other option today: install a button activated battery backed light at the exit point. This won’t help the first escapee discover the ladder, but it solves the lighting problem with any wire runs or complicated interconnect to the FACP. However in the chaos of an actual fire, there’s a risk nobody would ever push the button.