Strobe notification appliance and emergency lighting appliance with directional information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11062574-B2
Application number	US-201815923213-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 16, 2018
Priority date	Jan 22, 2016
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

A strobe notification appliance and an emergency lighting appliance that output directional information are disclosed. The strobe notification appliance may generate, in addition to notification of the fire condition, directional information (e.g., such as away from the unavailable exit paths and/or toward the preferred exit paths). For example, the strobe notification appliance includes a strobe element outputting fire notification information and a directional light element outputting directional information. The emergency lighting appliance may also operate in different modes, such as a power failure mode in which the emergency lighting appliance outputs light responsive to a power failure, and an alert mode (e.g., fire alert or mass notification alert mode) in which the emergency lighting appliance outputs light to convey directional information in order to guide occupants of a building. In this way, the occupants may be notified of an alarm event and notified of available or unavailable exit paths.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control panel, comprising:
a communication interface configured to communicate with emergency lighting appliances in an emergency lighting system and notification appliances in a notification system; and
a controller in communication with the communication interface, the controller configured to:
identify an alarm event for the notification system;
identify a region on a premises indicative of a safe place or safe passage for occupants of the premises based on determining whether the alarm event is responsive to receiving an alarm signal from a sensor;
identify, based on the identified region on the premises, a subset of the emergency lighting appliances that comprises less than all of the emergency lighting appliances in the emergency lighting system associated with the safe place or the safe passage;
send a command to the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances, the command indicative to generate an output indicative to the occupants of the premises of the safe place or the safe passage;
identify, based on the identified region on the premises, a subset of notification appliances in proximity to one or more exits not to be used to exit from the premises, wherein the subset of the notification appliances comprises less than all of the notification appliances in the notification system; and
send a second command to the identified subset of the notification appliances, the second command indicative to turn off the identified subset of the notification appliances during the alarm event to avoid indicating the one or more exits not to be used to exit the premises.

2. The control panel of claim 1 , wherein,
in response to the identified alarm event, a remainder of the emergency lighting appliances in the emergency lighting system remain inactive.

3. The control panel of claim 2 , wherein the command to the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances comprises a command indicative to the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances to turn on respective lights, associated with the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances, in a constantly-on mode.

4. The control panel of claim 2 , wherein the alarm event comprises a fire alarm event;
wherein the notification appliances comprise fire notification appliances;
wherein the notification system comprises a fire notification system;
wherein the identified region on the premises comprises the safe passage exiting the premises in order to escape the fire alarm event; and
wherein the controller is further configured to send a fire notification appliance command to one or more of the fire notification appliances to activate.

5. The control panel of claim 4 , wherein the fire notification appliance command is indicative to the one or more of the fire notification appliances to strobe, wherein strobing of the one or more of the fire notification appliances is indicative of the fire alarm event without being indicative to the occupants of the premises of the safe place or the safe passage.

6. The control panel of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further configured to identify, based on the identified region on the premises, a subset of fire notification appliances, wherein the subset of the fire notification appliances comprises less than all of the fire notification appliances in the fire notification system; and
wherein the controller is configured to send the fire notification appliance command to the identified subset of the fire notification appliances, the fire notification appliance command indicative to the identified subset of the fire notification appliances to generate an output indicative to the occupants of the premises the safe passage exiting the premises in order to escape the fire alarm event.

7. The control panel of claim 6 , wherein the command to the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances comprises a command indicative to the identified subset of the emergency lighting appliances to turn on respective lights, associated with the identified subset of emergency lighting appliances, in a constantly on mode;
wherein, in response to the identified alarm event, a remainder of the emergency lighting appliances in the emergency lighting system remain inactive; and
wherein the fire notification appliance command to the identified subset of fire notification appliances comprises a command indicative to the identified subset of fire notification appliances to strobe respective lights associated with the identified subset of fire notification appliances.

8. The control panel of claim 6 , wherein the command to the identified subset of emergency lighting appliances comprises a command indicative to the identified subset of emergency lighting appliances to strobe respective lights associated with the identified subset of emergency lighting appliances; and
wherein the fire notification appliance command to the identified subset of fire notification appliances comprises a command indicative to the identified subset of fire notification appliances to strobe respective lights associated with the identified subset of fire notification appliances.

9. The control panel of claim 8 , wherein a rate of strobing respective lights associated with the identified subset of emergency lighting appliances is different from a rate of strobing respective lights associated with the identified subset of fire notification appliances.

10. The control panel of claim 2 , wherein the alarm event comprises a mass notification event;
wherein the notification appliances comprise mass notification appliances;
wherein the notification system comprises a mass notification system;
wherein the identified region on the premises comprises a safe passage exiting the premises or a shelter in place; and
wherein the controller is further configured to send a mass notification appliance command to one or more of the mass notification appliances to activate.

11. The control panel of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to include in the command a voice message field, the voice message field indicative to the emergency lighting appliances to generate an aural output indicative of directional information.

12. The control panel of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
determine a loss of power;
identify one or more emergency lighting appliances to activate based on the loss of power; and
send a command to the identified one or more emergency lighting appliances to activate based on the loss of power and to control the identified one or more emergency lighting appliances to generate an output in order to provide lighting during the loss of power.

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Fire Prot Lp
• Tyco Fire & Security Gmbh

Inventors

• Savage Jr Kenneth
• Scheufele Brian John
• Marien Bruce

Classifications

• G08B7/066 Primary

  guiding along a path, e.g. evacuation path lighting strip · CPC title

• G08B5/38

  using flashing light · CPC title