Emergency Lighting
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. There are many standard fittings that the contractor can convert to emergency lighting with simple plug in kits.
Non maintained fittings
Non-maintained emergency luminaires only switch on when a building’s power fails.
happened, so try and upsell self-test units or automatic testing.
It means that the owner does not have to rely on a designated person to test each luminaire individually by pressing a test button or turning its key switch.
or produce smoke and/or toxins in a fire. To help reduce panic, suggest luminaires with higher illuminations levels that are on for longer. And while buildings may not be dangerous, they could still pose a risk if there are lots 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 suggest maintained exit signs so that people can clearly see how to leave safely.
How many products?
Having worked through the risk assessment you and the contractor can assess how many emergency luminaires they will need. 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
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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, the installer must add further lighting to ensure a minimum illuminance of escape routes. They must also install at least two emergency luminaires in every escape route compartment in case one fails, and they must provide a minimum of 1 lux at floor level.
Higher risk areas, such as production lines or control rooms, need more light. A simple solution is to suggest converting some of the mains lighting to emergency fittings using the manufacturer’s plug in kits.
Testing, testing
An emergency lighting installation is not a fit and forget exercise. They must be tested regularly with results recorded to make sure that they still operate correctly. In practice this has often not
A self-test unit will automatically perform its own test with any failure indicated by an LED on the fitting, which will blink or change colour. The operator will still need to visually check and record the LED indicator status of each fitting. Automatic testing using DALI 2 means the appointed person schedules the tests to meet the regulations. The system then performs the test and records the results. Depending on the building management system, the appointed person will then either check the electronic logbook or receive a message about any faulty units and arrange for their maintenance or replacement. Ageing infrastructure, stretched budgets and inconsistent testing means that many emergency lighting systems are not compliant. Not only is that putting lives at risk, but a tightened regulatory framework means that this has become a major issue across many sectors. If you can help the contractor understand what is needed for a modern compliant system, then you will help them win the business and, due to the higher requirements from such systems, sell more products.
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