Why Are There Red Electrical Outlets In Hospitals?

All hospitals are required to have emergency backup power to any areas where life saving equipment is being used. In these spaces, certain electrical outlets will be connected to a generator which will continue to supply these outlets with power during a power outage. In order to distinguish these outlets from the standard outlets which are not backed up to emergency power, often these outlets will have red receptacles:

These outlets also will usually be marked with a green dot, meaning they are hospital grade. An alternate method is to use red outlet covers, which signifies the same thing:

Often a fuel-powered generator will take a few seconds to start up. This can be problematic if sophisticated equipment such as laboratory or imaging are being powered, that cannot tolerate any lapse in power supply. In this case a battery backup system must be used to supply continuous power to the equipment during the generator startup time.

Mediproducts specializes in medical equipment backup power, and have been supplying hospitals and medical centers around the country with battery backup power for over twenty years. Our experienced staff will be glad to assist you in sizing and specifying the correct type of system for your requirements.