• • • LIGHTING • • •
flammable or produce smoke and/or toxins in a fire. To help reduce panic, you will need to specify higher illuminations levels that are on for longer.
And while some buildings may not be dangerous, they could pose a risk if there are a large number of people inside, such as in a stadium or theatre. If people need to evacuate there could be panic and crushing. Make sure that you specify maintained exit signs to clearly direct people so that they can leave safely.
Maintained emergency lighting Maintained emergency fitting can be turned on or off when the mains power is on, so they can operate when occupants need either normal or emergency lighting.
Non maintained fittings Non-maintained emergency luminaires only switch on when a building’s power fails.
Designing a compliant system Having worked through the risk assessment with the ‘responsible person’ there are a number of standards to ensure that you specify a fit for purpose emergency lighting system. EN50172 states that emergency lighting must achieve three things; it should clearly identify escape routes, provide illumination for safe movement towards and through exits and ensure that fire alarms and firefighting equipment are easily located. Every emergency lighting design must position luminaires to show specific hazards and highlight safety equipment. Collectively these are known as points of interest and include; each change of direction, where corridors meet, near stairs or changes of floor level so that each tread gets direct light, at designated exits and outside to a place of safety, and near first aid posts and firefighting equipment. After lighting the points of emphasis, you must add further lighting to ensure a minimum illuminance of escape routes. You must also specify at least two emergency luminaires in every escape route compartment in case one f ails, and it must provide a minimum of 1 lux at floor level. For open areas, which are bigger than 60m2, or if or if it has an escape route passing through it, you must provide enough emergency lighting to achieve a minimum of 0.5 lux at ground level. But you only need to do this in the central core area and not worry about the area that is 0.5m from the perimeter as people don’t tend to move through this space.
High risk locations For higher risk areas, such as production lines or control rooms, EN 1838:2013 states that the maintained illuminance on the reference plane must be not less than 10 per cent of the required illuminance for that task and should never be less than 15 lux. This means you need a higher output, possibly by converting some of your mains lighting to provide additional emergency lighting.
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
Exit signs
Exit signs are a critical part of any system because they show people where the fire exits are and how to get there safely. Make sure that the signs you specify are clearly visible.
Maximum viewing distances are detailed for all sign formats in EN 1838: 2013. Internally illuminated exit signs are pretested to ensure compliance, but you need to take extra care if the sign is externally illuminated and cite an emergency luminaire within 2 metres of it. The maximum viewing distance from an externally illuminated sign is 100x the height of the sign panel. It is 200x for an internally illuminated sign.
testing regularly to ensure that they remain compliant. The type of emergency lighting system that you specify will affect how easy and/or time consuming these tests will be for you or for the designated person to complete.
There are two tests, a monthly emergency light operation and an annual battery duration test. Depending on the building, there are three different solutions that you can consider. The simplest, but most time-consuming
solution, is to test each luminaire by pressing its test button or turning its key switch. This switches off the mains power to force the fitting into emergency mode. The operator will do the inspection by walking around the premises and testing each fitting.
A self-test unit will test itself automatically with any failure indicated by an LED on the fitting, which will blink or change colour. The operator still needs to visually check and record the LED indicator status of each fitting.
Automatic testing using a DALI 2 compliant system removes the time and hassle of the other two approaches. It also ensures that the building owner completes and records the tests for ongoing compliance. The appointed person schedules the tests to suit the occupants needs and to meet the regulations. Following each test, it will record the results and highlight any faulty units that need maintenance or replacing.
The Building Safety Act highlights the importance of fire safety. It means that emergency lighting must be based on a thorough risk assessment and be fit for purpose. Make sure you help the ‘responsible person’ get it right to meet their legal obligations. You can now download a copy of Collingwood Lighting’s ‘A Specifiers and Installers Guide to Emergency Lighting.’
Think about future testing Emergency lighting systems are not a fit and forget installation. The standards state that they need
https://www.collingwoodlighting.com ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • OCTOBER 2025 39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
