Olympia Electronics SA is a Greek manufacturer who has been specialising in Electronic Safety and Security Systems since 1979. With exports that exceed 70% of total sales and projects all over the world, Olympia Electronics posses an important position in the international market of Emergency Lighting and Fire Alarm Systems with products holding certification from recognised European Laboratories such as; LPCB, EVPU, BSI, Lloyd’s Register, VDS and HEEQAC.
Emergency Lighting technology is moving at high speed in developing systems that can be easily monitored and programmed from a central panel or computer and enable the easy and quick maintenance of the installation with low cost. These systems should enable the integration with bigger building management systems (BMS) in order to have a central management of the building. So the new era of emergency lighting is based on the communication of emergency luminaries with panels and BMS systems.
Following the imperatives of technology, Olympia Electronics has manufactured an addressable monitoring system for emergency lighting that consists of an addressable monitoring panel GR-6500, a big range of self-contained, addressable emergency luminaries and also addressable monitoring modules that in combination with battery kit converters for common luminaries fulfil the complete system. The addressable monitoring system of emergency lighting is appropriate for big installations, such as hospitals, malls, hotels, industries, universities, schools, airports, metro and railway stations due to the capability of central monitoring of the installation and the easy and quick maintenance of the system.
The addressable monitoring panel GR-6500 can monitor up to 250 addressable, self-contained emergency luminaries that can be connected either in 2 loops with maximum capacity 150 addressable emergency luminaries per loop or in 4 lighting circuits. The GR-6500 panel provides also the capability of grouping the addressable emergency luminaries in up to 16 zones that can be programmed, disabled and tested separately from the rest of the installation. These emergency lighting zones can create iconic segments in the building that enable the service provider to have a better inspection of the installation. When we have to cover bigger installations which demand more than 250 addressable, self-contained luminaries, we can create a network of addressable monitoring panels that are connected to a central PC via a common HUB/Switch through Ethernet cables. The maximum number of panels connected in a network is 64 and programming and monitoring of the system is easily achieved by typing the IP of each panel in a common web browser.
Τhe addressable, self contained emergency luminaries are power supplied by mains and connected with addressable monitoring panel via shielded, twisted pair cable in order to transfer the appropriate data to the panel. The communication protocol of the system is Olympia Protocol and is developed exclusively for this system. The maximum loop length permitted for the installations is 2km and the cable cross sections used are typically 1,5mm2 and sometimes 2,5mm2 based on the connected load and the length of the loop, in order to avoid an above the limits voltage drop.
The GR-6500 panel has an LCD display, indication LEDs that indicate the status of the panel and an easy menu that helps with the programming and monitoring of the installation. The LCD display is divided in 4 sections where sections inform about current mode of the panel, status of the panel, information about the installation and of course time and date of the panel accordingly. The first section that informs about the current mode of the panel has all the important indications such as: charging mode, emergency mode, function or capacity test, inhibit and off. The status of the panel in second section indicates if the panel is in normal state or if there is any fault in the system. The third segment has all the important information about the emergency luminaries and their status. Besides the information in LCD display, the LED indicators on the housing of the panel provide an extra and quick inspection of the status of the installation. So the information about current mode of the panel and status of the panel are displayed with LED indicators too.
The GR-6500 panel enables the service provider to do functions tests in the emergency luminaries of the installation and these tests can be applied either in all luminaries or in selected lighting zones or in specific points. These tests can be set as daily tests or once per week via the menu of the panel. The capacity test is very important in order to check the autonomy of the built in batteries of emergency luminaries and usually are set twice per year. Of course the technician or service provider can conduct a capacity test any time he checks the system, besides the scheduled capacity tests. All the results of the tests that are conducted in the panel are indicated in the information menu and the quick inspection and maintenance of the addressable emergency luminaries ensures the perfect operation of the emergency lighting system. So in case of an emergency situation all emergency luminaries will operate as it would have been expected. Usually in installations where the emergency luminaries are manually tested via TEST button, the appropriate inspection is disregarded and as a result the expected operation of emergency lighting in emergency situations is not achieved. These problems leaded to the development of central monitored emergency lighting systems with the advantages of quick, easy and low cost maintenance.
Since these panels are ideal for medium installations, the hotels and resorts were the first important market sector where these systems were applied. A lot of hotels and resorts are open for a certain period of time annually and some months they remain closed. The time they remain closed usually they do their annual repairs or renovations and no one is living in these facilities. So there is no obligation to operate the emergency lighting as it would have been expected in normal periods. For this reason an option in the panel was added called INHIBIT mode, that prohibits the operation of emergency luminaries in mains power supply failure. This capability of the panel preserves the life span of the built in batteries of luminaries by decreasing the number of charges and discharges. It is an important option and increases the energy efficiency of the building.
The programming and monitoring of the emergency lighting installations is always easier to be made by PCs, this is why company has developed a free programming and monitoring software. The GR-6500 panel can be monitored entirely by typing the IP of the panel in a common web browser like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or Opera. The panel should be connected via Ethernet cable to the PC in order to have this capability. When there are a lot of addressable monitoring panels connected in network, the monitoring and programming via a common PC will be the best option for an integrated inspection of the installation.
Τhereinafter, the BMS integration is also another obligation for a lot of electrical systems installed in a building. The emergency lighting is usually integrated with SCADA systems or other BMS systems in order to provide some operation status to the bigger monitoring system of the building. The GR-6500 panel has three relay contacts in order to be connected with the BMS and provide three general indications, normal operation, emergency mode and fault.
Concerning the addressable, self contained luminaries developed by Olympia Electronics that are compatible with GR-6500 panel, company covers a very big range of characteristics, IP ratings, dimensions, types and mounting methods. The addressable, self contained spot luminaries for escape routes and open areas, the weatherproof emergency luminaries and the exit signs in different sizes with pictograms applied in Plexiglas are the most common emergency luminaries used in installations like hotels, hospitals, universities, malls and schools. Additional in this range of products are addressable self contained high power LED emergency luminaries that achieve increased illumination in the floor level and are used usually in car parking areas, in foyers, in courts and sport facilities. Both addressable monitoring panel GR-6500 and addressable, self contained emergency luminaries are manufactured according to European regulations and are BSI kitemarked from the recognized European Laboratory BSI.
The addressable monitoring emergency lighting system from Olympia Electronics SA has been installed in a lot of different small to medium projects worldwide, with a great preference in Gulf countries. Special reference to a very huge and important project in Greece should be given, the 14 airport stations of Frapport that were renovated and the emergency lighting system that was selected was the addressable monitoring emergency lighting system of Olympia Electronics SA.
The great success of GR-6500 addressable monitoring panel and addressable emergency luminaries of Olympia Electronics SA, is company’s strong know how which is based on 40 years of experience in manufacturing of emergency lighting systems, the flexibility in adaptation of the products and the persistence in high quality and also the certifications of the products from European recognized third party laboratories.
For more information, go to www.olympia-electronics.gr
About the Author
Anna Daskalaki is Head Of Electrical Engineering Department at Olympia Electronics SA. She is a Dipl. Electrical & Computer Engineer, a designer and tender engineer of emergency lighting, fire and gas alarm systems for industrial, commercial and marine projects.
