Vision
News Updates for the Emergency Lighting Industry
Emergency lighting for
high output LED applications
13.1
BSL20 Family
Philips Emergency Lighting is pleased to introduce your emergency lighting solution
for high output LED applications.The Philips Bodine BSL20LV, BSL20MV and BSL20HV
Emergency LED Drivers convert high output LED fixtures into code-compliant
emergency lighting sources.The drivers provide up to 20W of constant output power, a
nominal 2000 lumens and a 90-minute runtime.
Philips Bodine BSL20LV, MV and HV units are ideal for use in settings such as big box retail facilities, warehouses, factories and gymnasiums.
They are a superior choice for high bay installations. To make testing easier for these difficult-to-reach fixtures, the two-wire test switch that
accompanies the BSL20 models may be remotely mounted up to 50 feet. The models are named to reflect output voltage. BSL20LV (low
voltage) offers 20-50V; BSL20MV (medium voltage), 50-130V; and BSL20HV (high voltage), 125-200V. The BSL20LV is output class 2 compliant.
Product Highlights
Ideal for high output applications, including high bay installations
Compatible with LED linear strips and LED light engines from a variety of manufacturers
20W constant power output (measured at nominal battery voltage)
BSL20LV: 20V-50V, 1A-.40A; BSL20MV: 50V-130V, .40A-.15A; BSL20HV: 125V-200V, .16A-.10A
Universal input operation (120-277 VAC, 50/60 HZ)
2000 lumens (nominal)
90-minute runtime
2-wire illuminated test switch; may be remotely mounted up to 50 feet
Do not affect normal fixture operation
Suitable for indoor and damp locations
Dimensions: 16.6” x 2.8” x 2.85”, 2’ flexible conduit
Five-year warranty
UL Component Recognized for factory installation only
BSL20MV and HV are additionally UL Recognized for Canada. Model BSL20LV-cUL is also available and suitable for Canada.
Selecting Emergency Lighting For LED Fixtures by Porter Wafler, Regional Sales Manager
In the past few years, the advances in LED technology have introduced new lighting options in commercial
installations. As with other types of lighting, LED lighting must meet the life safety code requirements for emergency illumination. LED
fixtures serving as emergency units must, therefore, provide at least 90 minutes of emergency lighting. Philips Bodine emergency LED
drivers and emergency lighting inverters allow these fixtures to meet or exceed code.
All Philips Bodine emergency drivers are UL Component
Recognized for factory installation only. There is, however, an
exception for the BSL17C-C2 and BSL17-C2. The BSL17C-C2
and BSL17-C2 are UL Classified for use with specific Philips
Fortimo DLM and SLM products, though they are UL Component
Recognized in all other cases.
In choosing the correct emergency driver, the output voltage
(VDC) is the most important choice and place to start, based on
the voltage needed by your array to operate, followed by number
of LEDs in the array. The unit then tries to maximize the output to
the array, resulting in the maximum output power in watts.
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Vision newsletter
In order to help you determine which Philips Bodine product will
work best for your application, you will need to provide the following
information:
• According to the driver spec and wiring schematic, are the LEDs in series or parallel?
• Number of LEDs and arrays, stack voltage and run current?
• Desired lumen output in the emergency mode?
If emergency LED drivers are not suitable for your application,
consider the ELI-S-20. The Philips Bodine ELI-S-20 Emergency
Lighting Micro Inverter is unit equipment that transforms LED (and
fluorescent) fixtures up to 25W into code-compliant emergency
lighting sources. ELI-S-20 is ideal for Edison-base (screw-base) LED
lamps and features an LED-friendly sinusoidal waveform.
Tech Talk
Compatibility Challenges by Joe Rouse, Tech Support
Changes made in ballasts and lamps have made it
necessary for us to modify the design of emergency ballasts
several times over the last several years.
Lower levels of mercury in lamps demanded that we make all of our compact fluorescent
emergency ballasts ac output units in order to meet life safety code requirements and
resulted in the removal of compacts from the list of lamps appropriate for standard DC
output products. Faster and more sensitive end-of-life error detection circuitry in ac ballasts
required us to develop the patented end-of-life compatibility (ELC) circuit. The additional
open-circuit voltage of the energy-saving T8 lamps forced us to restrict the products for use
with these lamps to higher output emergency ballasts.
Philips PL-T lamps are the latest challenge. A modification of the amalgam chemistry for the
lamps has made them difficult to operate at currents less than 30% of normal lamp current.
Our B84CG provides an initial lamp current of about 21% of normal, which is well below the
Philips recommendation.
For the time being, Philips PL-T lamps are not recommended for use with emergency ballasts.
Be assured we’re working to find a way to restore compatibility and ensure our customers
have the widest range of options in ballast and lamp selection.
Most compatibility issues we find and verify are published on the Tech Notes page of our
website. Of course, calling the Tech Support Hotline at 888.263.4638 and submitting a tech
question via e-mail from the web are also available options for more information.
Going, Going …
Our goal is always to provide you with the
best emergency lighting solutions in the
industry. As part of this process, we regularly
review our product lines, customer needs
and changes in the industry. From time to
time, this review leads us to discontinue
some products, making way for new ones.
Effective Jan.1, 2014, we will no longer
be offering the following 2-pin compact
fluorescent emergency ballast models: B463,
B413 and B426. Low-profile models B100LP
and B60LPU will also be made obsolete at
the end of the current year.
Customers can place their orders for these
models until Dec. 31, 2013. Please contact a
member of the Philips Bodine sales team if
you need help finding alternatives.
Our Technical Support Hotline by Cliff Wentworth, Regional Sales Manager
One of the most valuable tools that Philips Emergency Lighting provides is our Technical Support Hotline (888.263.4638). This toll-free line is
answered from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. central time Monday through Friday. Joe Rouse, Tech Support Engineer, brings many years of technical experience
in answering questions regarding proper wiring diagrams for use with specific ac ballast and lamp combinations, working through installation
questions and addressing alleged product failures or malfunctions that would lead to warranty replacement.
This very important phone number appears in many places. It is on the product label on every product that we manufacture, on our
installation instructions packed with every product, on every specification sheet describing our product, its operation and characteristics, as
well as on our website.Visit us at www.philips.com/bodine.
Even with such a widely publicized toll-free number on such a well-known brand, we still experience
many occasions where a Philips Bodine product is deemed by someone in the field to be “defective”
without any contact or consultation with the factory. No-charge replacements are demanded, and
requests for labor to be paid are frequent. A recent example is that of an electrical contractor who
sent us a bill for labor for 47 hours of troubleshooting! Did he call for any assistance? Of course
not! Were the units defective? No. The problem turned out to be a simple oversight that was quickly
identified with a conversation, after the fact, with our technical support group. A great deal of time,
expense and emotional effort was wasted by not taking the most logical action when facing a job
problem or warranty issue – call the factory.
Joe Rouse,Tech Support Engineer
Philips Bodine Technical Support: 888.263.4638
© 2013 Philips Emergency Lighting
3
P. O. Box 460
Collierville, TN 38027-0460
236 Mt. Pleasant Rd. Collierville, TN 38017
Sales Contacts
Rob Sumner, National/West Sales Manager
rob.sumner@philips.com
Porter Wafler, Sales Manager/East
porter.wafler@philips.com
Sales 800.223.5728
Fax 901.853.5009
www.philips.com/bodine
Newsletter Schedule
In case you’ve been wondering why you haven’t received a 2013
Philips Bodine newsletter until now, our production schedule has
changed. The newsletter will now be
distributed twice each year – June and
December – rather than quarterly.
Cliff Wentworth, Sales Manager/Central
cliff.wentworth@philips.com
Rob
Porter
Cliff
Customer Service Contacts
Joe Rouse, Tech Support Engineer
joe.rouse@philips.com
Joe
Updated Literature Available for Download
ELI-S-20 Micro Inverter Brochure 2013 (http://bit.ly/ELImicro)
ELI Mini Inverters Brochure 2013 (http://bit.ly/ELImini)
LED Brochure 2013 (http://bit.ly/BodineLED)
2013 Solutions Catalog (http://bit.ly/PEL2013)
The above Bitly addresses are shortened but case-sensetive links to our brochure PDFs.