Electronic Locks for Commercial Buildings: Types, Fail-Safe and Code

Most of what ranks for this question is a product catalogue. That is useful once you know what you want, and not much help before. The real decisions on a commercial door are which kind of electrified hardware suits the opening, what should happen when the power fails, and what the Building Code allows on a door people may need to escape through.

We fit and service electrified hardware as part of the whole opening — door, frame, hinges, closer and lock together — so this guide is written from the door's side.

Four decades of commercial door hardware for names Ontario knows — Canada’s Wonderland, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, the LCBO, Metrolinx, Marriott & Hilton hotels, the University of Toronto — plus thousands of businesses across the GTA. Dependable people, quality products, since 1979.

What are the types of electronic locks for commercial buildings?

There are two families. Electronic locksets carry their own keypad or card reader on the door and usually run on batteries. Electrified hardware — electric strikes, maglocks, electrified mortise locks and exit devices — is powered by wire and released by an access-control system, intercom or button somewhere else.

How does electronic access control improve security?

Electronic access control replaces keys with credentials you can issue and cancel. When someone leaves, their card, fob or code is deleted rather than a building being rekeyed, and nobody can copy a key at a kiosk.

The other gains are the ones the old keyed system never gave you:

• A record. A networked system logs who opened which door and when — useful for the server room, the pharmacy, the records office or the cash room.
• Doors that relock themselves. A door on access control relocks as it closes, instead of relying on the last person out to lock up.
• Alarm integration. A door held open or forced can raise an alert on the alarm or access system.
• Layers. Critical rooms can require a second factor — a code with the card, or a biometric reader where the risk justifies it.
• Fewer hands on the hardware. Card and fob readers open without anyone touching a key or handle on the way in.

Should a commercial lock be fail-safe or fail-secure?

A fail-safe lock unlocks when power is removed; a fail-secure lock stays locked. Allegion puts it plainly in its fail-safe vs fail-secure explainer: the term describes the secure (key) side of the door, and most products still allow free egress from the inside either way.

The choice turns on what a power failure should mean at that door:

• Fail-secure suits most perimeter and interior doors. If the power goes, the building stays locked from outside and people still walk out from the inside.
• Fail-safe suits doors that must release when power or the fire alarm drops — stairwell re-entry, some exits and doors released for fire-service access.
• Maglocks are fail-safe only. With no power there is no magnetic hold.
• Fire-rated doors need positive latching. Allegion notes that fail-secure strikes must be used on fire doors because fail-safe strikes do not provide the positive latching and listings NFPA 80 requires.

What does Ontario's Building Code say about electronic locks on exit doors?

On an exit door, the Code wins over security. Ontario Building Code

Article 3.4.6.16

requires locking devices on every exit door to let the door be opened from the inside with no more than one releasing operation and without keys, special devices or specialized knowledge. A keypad needed to get out is not allowed on an exit.

Electromagnetic locks are permitted on exit doors only under conditions. The building needs a fire alarm system, and the lock must release immediately on:

• activation of the fire alarm signal;
• loss of power;
• a manual switch available to authorized staff;
• a fault in the lock's electrical circuit; and
• operation of a fire-alarm manual station on the wall no more than 600 mm from the door.

The same article also requires signage on and near the door, manual reset after release and emergency lighting. Those details are for the designer and the authority having jurisdiction to confirm on each project; our job is to make sure the hardware on the door does what that design requires.

Accessible entrances add their own layer. Where a door has a barrier-free power operator, the lock has to release before the operator opens the door, so the lock and the operator are wired and tested together.

What are the downsides of electronic door locks?

Electronic locks add failure points a mechanical lock does not have, so each door needs a plan for power, batteries and upkeep. None of these is a reason not to fit them; all of them are reasons to plan the job before ordering hardware.

• Power and batteries. Wired hardware needs a power supply sized for the run and, often, a battery backup. Battery locksets need a battery routine.
• Getting power into the door. Electrified locks and exit devices need a power transfer hinge or a door loop to carry wires into a moving leaf.
• The door has to latch. A dropped leaf, a strike out of line or a closer too weak to beat the seal defeats any lock. That is why lock work on older buildings often starts with hinges, strikes and closers.
• Fire labels. Hardware on a rated door must be listed for it, and field-cutting a rated door or frame can void the label. The hardware is chosen before the door is ordered.
• Codes get shared. A keypad code known to every former employee is a key nobody can recall. Change codes, or use credentials that can be cancelled.

What does fitting electronic locks to an existing building involve?

Fitting electronic locks is door work as much as electrical work. We survey each opening, confirm the door and frame can take the hardware, prepare or replace them where they cannot, and fit and adjust the lock, strike, hinges and closer so the door latches every time. Readers, panels and software usually come from the access-control or security contractor, and the two trades test each door together.

Electrified hardware is rarely a stock item. Where new doors or frames are part of the job, plan on typically 4–6 weeks to produce once shop drawings are approved, then 1–2 weeks to schedule and install. On a building with fire-rated openings, doing the locks alongside the annual

fire door inspection

catches both problems in one visit.

The hardware we specify, fit and repair — closers, exit devices, strikes, maglocks, electrified locksets and keying — is on the commercial door hardware page. If the door itself is past saving, see hollow metal doors and frames, and for the physical side of keeping people out, our guide to preventing break-ins at a business.