High-quality lighting of an entrance in an apartment building is an important factor in human comfort. Most often, ordinary incandescent bulbs with a power of 40 to 100 W are used for lighting.
But the use of this type of artificial lighting in the modern world is becoming irrelevant for a number of reasons:
- Fragility of use;
- High consumption of energy resources;
- A high degree of incandescence (up to 360 degrees) can provoke a fire.
People began to look for solutions to these problems by using other light sources.
An important condition for maintaining the health of a person living in an apartment building is the light on the stairwells at night.
Most often, luminaires are located on sites in such a way that lighting occurs both on staircases and in the aisles to apartments.
The set of lamps used for these purposes is very diverse:
- Incandescent lamps. They are cheap in terms of cost, but not energetically beneficial;
- Fluorescent lamps. The cost is several times more expensive. The main problems are disposal after use (due to the contained mercury) and delayed start-up due to its warming up.
- Energy-saving lamps. The price threshold is relatively large than that of the first two options, but it pays off after 3 months of work.
Regardless of the light source, it is controlled in a simple mechanical way using a switch. It must be located in a publicly accessible area.
If the house has a non-smoke staircase, then its lighting should be carried out automatically at dusk and before dawn. Incandescent lamps in this case should not be used, since they belong to the fire hazard class.
Lighting of entrances in apartment buildings
In many ways, the solution to this problem depends on the type of the building itself.
Normative documents interpret the following illumination characteristics:
- If the length of the corridor along which the residential premises are located is up to 10 meters, then one light source located in the center is sufficient;
- With a length of more than 10 meters, lamps are located in each wing in an amount of 2 pieces.
In order to save energy, many management companies are switching their houses to automatic or remote lighting of entrances.
With this method of lighting, a mechanical switch must also be available, so that the light can be turned on independently and, if necessary, turned off in cases of emergency. For example, in the event of a fire or gas leak.
Possibilities of installing energy-saving lamps in the entrances of apartment buildings
An energy-saving lamp installed in the entryway provides significant energy savings. For 1 hour of uninterrupted operation, it consumes only 11 W, while a conventional incandescent lamp is 60 W.
But with its high cost, residents have to think about how to maintain their working capacity for a longer time. Since no one can insure themselves against acts of hooliganism, you have to make additional waste by purchasing anti-vandal lamps.
In order for electricity to be wasted in a smaller amount and the lighting to last a long time, you have to think not only about changing lamps, but also cartridges. The energy-saving sockets are equipped with a light sensor and a microphone.
When the noise of footsteps appears, the light turns on automatically, and when they fade away, it turns off. The same process occurs with a decrease or increase in natural light at the entrance of a residential building.
The courtyard of an apartment building and its lighting
To prevent injury-prone situations, street lamps installed above the plate with the house number, as well as at the very entrance, are of great importance.
Light gives everyone the opportunity to secure their lives. Residents of an apartment building can choose lamps with a motion sensor for use in the yard, which will significantly save their budget.
Installation of this type of lighting will not require additional costs, except for the purchase of the lamp itself and the selected type of lamps.
Electricity consumption will be controlled by a motion sensor. This option is not suitable if there is constant movement in the courtyard of an apartment building.
It can be:
- Cats;
- Dogs;
- Walking youth;
- If the yard is a carriageway to other living quarters;
- If your house is located near the railway.
Light with a motion sensor at the entrance of an apartment building
Luminaires with a motion sensor, especially on staircases, are one of the ways to save the financial situation of everyone living in a high-rise building.
The light turns on only when a person approaches the maximum distance to the motion sensor (indicated in the accompanying documents).
Some residents also install CCTV cameras when installing motion-sensor luminaires. At the first stage, this causes additional material investments, but later on it allows you to secure your life.
The light emanating from lamps with a motion sensor can scare even the hardest thief in the first seconds.
In this case, even the use of incandescent lamps will be financially justified for the following reasons:
- They have the property of instant inclusion;
- Provide sufficient illumination of stairwells in response to movement;
- Installation does not require any special skills;
- The light of the lamps complies with the standards set forth by SanPin.
The choice of lamps for lighting the entrance is carried out by voting of the residents of the entrance.
Luminaires for anti-vandal porches
An important point is that the luminaires located in the entrances must comply with the permissible lighting standards. This allows you to preserve the vision of each resident, and when using CCTV cameras, to fix troublemakers.
Lighting equipment used in entrances must have anti-vandal characteristics. Light should illuminate not only the site, but also affect all paths of human movement.
Remember that only by installing a vandal-proof lamp you can protect yourself from additional material costs.
It's important to know.
- Every resident of a high-rise building has the right at the meeting to vote for any method of lighting that is acceptable to him;
- Insufficient light can damage your health;
- All escape routes must be in full working order in terms of light resolution in accordance with regulatory documents.
In order to find out exactly who takes care of the performance of the yard lights, you will have to refer to Federal Law No.131.
It clearly states that all streets, roads, as well as alleys are under the auspices of local governments, just like courtyards.
The organization of lighting for the courtyard of an apartment building at night, in the evening, and also in the early morning is a matter of local importance. Thus, the district administration is responsible for this.
But despite this, the direct responsibility of maintaining the lighting devices in working order falls on the shoulders of the residents themselves.
It is the citizens who are interested in lighting that must conclude an agreement with the administration or other organizations that are able to organize electricity to power the lanterns.
As for the repair, operation and maintenance of power lines, these issues are dealt with by the same companies that specialize in this. They will regularly perform their duties if you conclude an agreement with them on time.
However, the courtyards in question are not common areas. They fall into the category of adjoining territory, and this is a slightly different concept.
The latter case is regulated by article 161 of the RF LC.
Such an agreement prescribes the responsibilities of the organization, which are various services and actions for the proper care and maintenance of property belonging to the house. Utilities may also be included here.
All these services are provided for a reason. Residents must pay them on a monthly basis. This is also regulated by the RF LC, namely Article 154.
Thus, the payment for keeping the street lamps in working order is included in the receipts that are received by the tenants every month.
Lighting standards
Lighting standards for the adjacent territory of an apartment building are established in accordance with, namely:
- at the entrance to the building, there must be at least 6 suites;
- there must be at least 4 suites on the pedestrian path that leads to the building;
- the main thoroughfares in the microdistricts should be illuminated for 4 lux;
- Secondary driveways, as well as courtyards and various utility sites must be illuminated within 2 suites.
In addition, there are pre-designed lighting options. They provide for a certain placement of lighting fixtures and their corresponding type. The options are as follows:
When the tenants are faced with the task of designing the lighting for their yard, then, in addition to the financial component, they must take into account such factors as the resistance of lanterns to hooligans and protection from falling icicles in winter.
Whichever option the citizens living in the house choose, they must first of all be guided by the lighting standards that are adopted in Russia.
They were invented for a reason, and non-compliance with them may entail not only liability before the law, but also some human sacrifices.
What if there is no light?
If there is no light in the yard for any reason, the tenants of the house, dissatisfied with this state of affairs, can legally come with claims to the local administration.
Before making fiery statements to the employees of the aforementioned administrative body, you must carefully read the Federal Law No.131, which says that local authorities and no one else are obliged to organize street lighting.
Even in Russia, there is a special GOST, which fixes the requirements for the order in which lighting is organized.
Complaints in writing must be submitted to the administration that deals with the municipality. Oddly enough, they should be engaged in maintaining the illumination of the streets.
When drawing up a complaint, one must be guided by the Federal Law, which was mentioned above.
It clearly lists all the responsibilities that are assigned to local self-government bodies.
It is among their responsibilities that the organization of power supply for the entire population is included.
To make a written complaint more convincing, you need to attach the signatures of all residents of the dissatisfied house. This will give it a collective order and within a month it will certainly be considered and measures will be taken.
If the administration refuses to take action, then tenants can immediately apply to the court. In such a statement, it is necessary to indicate the very fact of inaction of local authorities.
You can also add that they refuse to fulfill their legal duties. However, in such a situation, it should be remembered that no one needs a conflict with the administration, inflated from scratch, especially if it promises to drag on for a long time.
But if the power supply magically disappeared, in general, then something must be done with this, and an application to the court will be quite an adequate response from the tenants.
The same should be done if the lighting equipment is completely defective.
In the case when the question concerns several burned out light bulbs, it will be enough just to contact the Committee of Municipal Economy under the Administration.
Most often, they very quickly react to a signal from tenants and control that the courtyard is lit as required by law.
Conclusion
From all that has been written above, we can conclude that organizing the lighting of the local area and maintaining the lanterns in working order is, in essence, an easy task.
However, there are also pitfalls here, and in order not to stumble upon them, you need to carefully study the lighting standards and Federal laws that were discussed.
Staircase lighting is a fairly overhead expense for any homeowner community. Therefore, the question of saving on this type of expenses is raised quite often.
Someone reduces the illumination level by unscrewing part of the lamps, and someone optimizes the control circuit. We will talk about the possibilities of such optimization in our article.
Requirements for the level and method of controlling the illumination of entrances
Illumination standards for various parts of the entrance and utility rooms
Before proceeding with the issues of the possibility of automating lighting control systems, one should understand the norms presented by various regulatory acts for this parameter. After all, this will allow us not only to arrange our lamps as efficiently as possible, but also make it possible to apply the automation system that is optimal in our case.
- As you already understood, GOST entrance lighting for different rooms has a different standard. It is normalized in Table 1 VSN 59 - 88. According to this standard, two types of illumination are distinguished - illumination from fluorescent lamps and incandescent lamps. By the way, the so-called energy efficient lamps are fluorescent.
- First of all, consider the stairwells and floor corridors. The illumination of these zones when using fluorescent lamps should be 10 lux, but if incandescent lamps are used, then the norm is 5 lux. In this case, the leveling plane is the steps and the floor of the corridor.
- GOST for lighting of entrances with elevator facilities is somewhat different. So the elevator halls should have an illumination of 20 lux when using fluorescent lamps and 7 lux for incandescent lamps. At the same time, according to clause 2.27 ВСН 59 - 88, the luminaire must be installed in such a way that part of the luminous flux is directed to the elevator door. Lighting of entrance halls should also meet similar requirements.
- If there are wheelchair spaces at the entrance, then they should be illuminated with incandescent lamps. In this case, the illumination rate for them is 20 lux, and the normalized surface is the floor.
- Elevator shafts, if they are not made with mesh fencing, should also be illuminated. For them, the norm is 5 lux and is given only for incandescent lamps. In this case, a conditional surface three meters from the lamp is taken as the normalized surface.
- GOST lighting of entrances should also correspond to such premises as a basement or an attic. For them, it is recommended to use only incandescent lamps. The illumination rate is 10 lux. In this case, not the entire room should be lit, but only the main aisles. The same standards apply to waste collection chambers, switchboards and other similar premises.
Note! That, in addition to the standards of illumination for various rooms, there are standards for pulsation of light, color rendering and some other parameters that the lighting of the entrances must also comply with. These norms are given in SNiP II-4-79.
Standards for the control of staircase lighting
The automation of lighting in the entrances is constantly being modernized. More and more complex and energy efficient schemes are emerging, and regulations do not always keep up with these changes.
So:
- First of all, it should be remembered that, according to clause 8.1 VSN 59 - 88, with any method of automation of lighting, it should be possible to manually turn it on at any time of the day. This is necessary both for repair work and for various unforeseen situations.
- When installing automation systems that respond to the illumination of a room, timely switching on of lighting for rooms with different natural illumination should be provided. This can be done by turning on all the lighting when the light level is reduced in the darkest place, or by installing additional light sensors.
- When using a variety of sensors, evacuation or emergency lighting must be provided, which is turned on by a conventional switch in addition to automation. With the onset of darkness, it must be constantly on.
- According to clause 8.15 VSN 59 - 88, switching devices for turning on the attic lighting must be outside this room. They are usually located at the entrance. If there are several such inputs, then the switching device must be installed on each.
- All switching devices for switching on lighting must ensure a break in the phase wire. In this case, the presence of a phase on the secondary circuits of the lighting control system must be ensured.
Driveway lighting automation schemes
At the moment, the most diverse automation of entrance lighting has been developed and implemented. Analysis of each scheme will take a lot of time, especially since they often intertwine and combine each other, so we will consider only the most common and successful options in our opinion.
Indeed, for each individual entrance, the most relevant will be its own lighting scheme, which takes into account the geography of the entrance, location features, number of storeys of the house, the consciousness of homeowners and many other aspects.
Lighting control using push-button posts
This method of lighting control will be successful for low-rise buildings with a sufficient number of conscientious citizens. After all, it only provides an opportunity to save money, and the residents of the entrance must already realize this saving.
Its main advantage is its simplicity and price, which is significantly lower than all the options below.
So:
- Depending on the type of entrance, this type of control has several possible options. In the first version, this is a push-button post located at the entrance to the entrance, as well as on each floor. At the entrance to the staircase, a person presses the button to turn on the light, from the button is pulled up the starter to turn on the lighting of the entire staircase. When a person enters home, he presses the light off button, the starter coil is de-energized and the light goes out.
- The second option assumes the possibility of switching on the lighting of only the staircase from the push-button post. In this case, storey corridors are switched on from separate push-button posts and act on their own starter. This option is more economical, but somewhat more complicated and more expensive to implement.
Many of us have had to return home more than once at night. At such moments, a person realizes how important lighting is inside and around an apartment building. But what if there is no light either in the entrance or in the yard? Who to contact and who is responsible for this? Let's look at this issue.
In this article:
Entrance lighting
With the onset of darkness in the entrance and on the stairwells of a residential building, the light must be turned on. This is primarily necessary for the safety of residents. Lighting at the entrance of an apartment building must meet the following requirements:
- in public areas, a general lighting system is used;
- if the house has more than 6 floors and more than 50 people live, then the building must be equipped with evacuation lighting;
- evacuation lamps are installed in the main aisles and in front of elevators;
- it is allowed to use incandescent lamps, halogen and LED lamps;
- it is recommended to cover the lamp with anti-vandal, shock-resistant glass or metal mesh;
- the light intensity must comply with the established standards.
Illumination standards are regulated by special regulatory documents, SNiP and GOST and are standardized according to VSN 59-88. Lux values for common areas are shown in the table:
Residents have the right to complain to the management company not only that there are no lamps, but also that their light is not intense enough.
Basement lighting
Special requirements are put forward for the organization of the basement lighting due to the special microclimate inside the room. As a rule, it is always humid there, dampness can be observed, therefore the lamps must meet the electrical safety and fire safety standards.
The power supply must be reduced to 42 W using a step-down transformer. The luminaire body must be grounded. It is not recommended to connect copper and aluminum wires when laying cables, which react under the influence of moisture. The wiring is placed in special corrugated pipes called sleeves.
Lighting of the local area
Before figuring out what standards the lighting of the adjoining territory and the courtyard of an apartment building should meet, you need to figure out what is included in this concept - "adjoining territory". According to the legislation, these are:
- the land plot on which the house is built, its dimensions are determined by the cadastre;
- improvement elements (this includes, among other things, lamps);
- objects intended for the operation of the house (heating points, transformer, children's and sports grounds, car parks).
Direct lighting of the courtyard of an apartment building can be carried out in three ways:
- Lantern under the visor above the entrance door. This is convenient, because you can take a low-power lamp, you don't need a lot of light. The disadvantage is that only a small area in front of the door will be illuminated.
- A lantern above the porch canopy. It is advisable to take a lamp with a luminous flux of at least 3500 lm and a circular luminous intensity. Placed at a height of 5 meters at an angle of 25 degrees to the horizon. But, despite the fact that the entire courtyard is illuminated in this way, the area next to the door remains in the dark.
- Combining the two previous options. The most optimal way to illuminate the yard, but it consumes a lot of electricity.
To illuminate the adjacent territory, standards have also been developed, which are presented in the table:
Some residents insist on installing motion-sensor lighting in order to save energy. It makes sense to install such lamps inside the entrances, while on the streets they will not work quite correctly. On the street, the sensor can be triggered by the movement of the animal, and the light will turn on when it is not required.
Who is responsible for lighting the home?
According to Federal Law No. 131, local governments are responsible for the illumination of streets, roads and courtyards. But maintaining the performance of the lamps is the responsibility of the residents of the house.
According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, responsibility for light inside residential buildings and on the adjacent territory lies with the management company with which the tenants have entered into an agreement. The text of the agreement itself spelled out what services the Criminal Code provides, for which it is responsible and what is the procedure for dealing with emerging problems or controversial issues.
What to do if residents find that there is no light in the entrance, common areas, basement or adjacent territory? They need to take the following steps:
- An act is drawn up, which describes the problem.
- The act is signed by at least 3 people. These can be neighbors, the head of the porch, or the chairperson of the house.
- Proof of the problem is attached to the act. For example, a photo of the lack of light in the evening.
- The documents are transferred to the management company.
- Within seven days, the employees of the Criminal Code check and analyze the information, troubleshoot problems and draw up their own statement of the problem.
- The document, which contains all the actions taken to eliminate the problem, is handed over to the applicants.
If the management company does not cope with its responsibilities, refuses to fulfill what is prescribed in the contract, the tenants have the right to terminate the agreement with it and conclude an agreement with another organization.
Who pays for lighting the courtyard and entrances of an apartment building? According to the Federal Law, the area around the house, like the entrances, is a common property. Lighting and troubleshooting costs are borne directly by the occupants. Moreover, the costs are divided for each owner, depending on the area of his apartment.
You should pay attention to whether it is documented that this particular adjoining territory is the common property of this particular house. If there are no such marks, then the inclusion of payment for it in the receipt is illegal.
Lighting in multi-storey buildings is strictly regulated by laws and sanitary standards. If one of the important parameters is not observed - there is no light at all, it is not bright enough, the lighting is organized without taking into account the safety of the residents, then the residents of the house have the right to apply to the management company, the local administration or even to the court.