They say "confession is good for the soul."
If I am doing a new installation, I will put the emergency lights and exit signs on a lighting circuit. It seems to make sense to have the light go "on" when power fails to the lighting circuit.
Of course, if they control the lights by flipping breakers, this idea won't work.
In that case, or in a retrofit where circuits are a mess, I tie the exit signs and bugeyes into and convenient unswitched circuit. This, at least, ensures lighting in the event of a PoCo failure.
The only joker in this deck is that we have at least one Fire Inspector who can't be bothered to use the 'test' buttons; rather, he wants to flip breakers. I mark the assorted breakers with red tape just for him!
