Sage Central Battery.
One cabinet. Entire building. Open battery system, no proprietary parts.
Wall-mounted 24 VDC emergency power for an entire building's egress lighting — from one cabinet, monitored over the cloud, charged on standard lead-calcium batteries you can buy from any commercial supplier. Two cabinet tiers (Keystone, Volta) cover everything from small footprints to 1000 W high-density loads. UL 924 listed. NFPA 101 by design.
The cabinet that powers every emergency-mode fixture in the building.
A Sage Central Battery cabinet is a wall-mounted, low-voltage emergency power source. Two 12 V lead-calcium batteries in series produce 24 VDC; a computer-controlled charger keeps them at float voltage continuously. The cabinet feeds emergency fixtures over standard Class 2 low-voltage wiring — up to eight isolated 24 V branch circuits per cabinet (36 with the high-circuit option on Keystone).
When utility AC fails on any monitored branch — sensed by the Local Circuit Monitor (Olympus) — the cabinet transitions emergency-capable fixtures to DC within milliseconds. NFPA 7.9.2.3 single-circuit egress failure is satisfied at the device level; no generator needed to clear NEC's 10-second dark window.
The system is deliberately open. Batteries are standard, off-the-shelf lead-calcium — available from any commercial battery supplier. No proprietary chemistry. No service-contract gates. Faults report via email and Sage Live™. Status is queryable from anywhere over the internet.
Four moving pieces. Everything else is wire.
Two 12 V batteries in series
Standard lead-calcium chemistry sourced from any commercial supplier. Replaceable in minutes — no ladders, no lifts, no special tools, no proprietary parts. The single biggest lifecycle-cost lever.
Computer-controlled, float-voltage maintained
Keeps the batteries at float continuously. Optional fast charger (Volta) recycles from full discharge in under 12 hours so a triggered cabinet is back online by morning.
LCD + email + self-test
Battery voltage, charge current, load condition, fault description, panel temperature, date stamp — all on the front LCD. Faults push via email. Self-test runs unattended on the NFPA monthly + annual cadence and logs itself.
Up to 8 isolated 24 V branch circuits
Eight emergency circuits per cabinet, physically and electrically isolated to satisfy NEC 700.17 branch-circuit independence. Each circuit feeds Sage Relays + Sage CB Fixtures over Class 2 MC daisy-chain. Keystone's 36-circuit option scales further.
Keystone for the standard. Volta for the dense.
Both cabinets share Sage's DNA — 24 VDC output, computer-controlled charging, eight isolated branch circuits, self-test diagnostics, Sage Live™ readiness. The differences land at the edges of the load envelope and on the optional integration features.
| Spec | Keystone (KEY) | Volta (VOL) |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity range | Sized for standard commercial loads | 100 W – 1000 W |
| Output | 24 VDC to emergency fixtures | 24 VDC to emergency fixtures |
| Emergency circuits per cabinet | Up to 8 · 36-circuit option available | Up to 8 |
| Input | Universal 120 / 277 VAC · max 5 W idle consumption | 120 VAC standard · optional 277, 347, or 480 VAC |
| Enclosure | NEMA Type 1 steel · surface or recess mount | NEMA Type 1 steel · surface or recess mount |
| Diagnostics | Automatic self-test · email fault alerts · LCD display | LCD diagnostics + installed printer (optional) |
| Networking | Optional addressable-fixture network · Sage Live™ cloud | Optional BMS integration · Sage Live™ cloud |
| Charging | Computer-controlled · maintenance-grade | Computer-controlled · optional fast charger (full recharge <12 hrs) |
| Generator integration | Optional generator input — emergency operation with no startup delay | Optional generator input — clears NEC 10-sec dark window |
Sage engineering picks the cabinet from the project's emergency load schedule — same workflow as the Sage Relay BOM. Send the schedule; the cabinet, the LCM count, the relay quantities, and the wiring diagram land in the submittal package.
Open battery system. No proprietary anything.
Most central-battery and inverter systems lock owners into proprietary battery chemistries, proprietary modules, and factory-authorized service contracts. Five-year replacement cycles arrive bundled with vendor-only parts, vendor-only technicians, and vendor-only test cycles.
Sage was designed against that. Both Keystone and Volta run on standard lead-calcium batteries from any commercial supplier. When a battery reaches end of life, the building team or any licensed electrician swaps it in minutes — no special tools, no factory dispatch, no downtime window. The same applies to the charger, the diagnostics board, the LCD, and the branch-circuit hardware: everything Sage uses is industry-standard or designed for open service.
The economic picture: a building with 294 integral battery packs at 5-year replacement cycles, each requiring a factory-authorized service visit, runs ~$200,000 in lifecycle cost over a decade. Seven Sage cabinets feeding the same fixtures, on standard batteries serviced by the building team, runs a fraction of that. Full numbers in the battery-pack comparison ↗
The cabinet that tests itself, logs itself, and tells you when something's wrong.
Every Sage cabinet runs the NFPA monthly + annual self-test cycle unattended. Battery voltage, charge current, load condition, fault description, and panel temperature all stamp into a date-logged audit trail. The LCD displays the current state on-site; email pushes faults the moment they occur; Sage Live™ surfaces the full fleet status remotely.
LCD + email + printer option
Front-panel LCD gives the FM team everything they need without opening the door. Email pushes faults in real time. Volta's optional installed printer satisfies inspectors who still want a paper log.
Full fleet visibility over the cloud
Status, test history, and faults across every Sage cabinet in your portfolio — one dashboard, no on-site visits. Sage Live™ runs on every cabinet by default; full-scope deep dive shipping separately.
Service the cabinet without breaking coverage.
NEC 700.3(F) requires an alternate emergency source during maintenance of the primary emergency system. With integral battery packs, that means floor-by-floor temporary coverage every five-year replacement cycle — a logistical and budget nightmare across a portfolio.
Sage uses a low-cost portable battery cart that plugs in to the cabinet's service connection and maintains 90-min coverage for the building during the scheduled service window. One cart per cabinet; one service window for the whole building's emergency lighting. Code box checked.
Cabinet · Olympus · Relay · Fixture.
The cabinet is the power source. The Local Circuit Monitor (Olympus) senses utility failure on each branch and signals the cabinet on a 12 V loop within milliseconds. The Sage Relay sits inside each emergency-capable fixture, receives the DC feed, and energizes the LED at the programmed emergency wattage. The fixture itself can be a Sage CB Fixture, a Sage Luminaire with factory-installed relay, or any third-party LED fixture fitted with an SR-series relay in the field.
One system, four components, every emergency-mode fixture in the building covered.
Send Sage engineering the project. Get the cabinet sized + the full BOM back.
Engineers, distributors, rep agencies — send the project fixture schedule and the emergency-mode load total. Sage engineering picks the cabinet tier, sizes the battery bank, picks the relay variants, counts the LCMs, and returns the submittal package. No self-spec required.