Although emergency lighting has seen some interesting changes, with products that are more reliable, energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing than ever before, the essential requirement has remained steadfastly unchanged – a system that will provide at all times the safest means of evacuation in the event of an incident that causes the failure of the mains lighting circuit. Alan Daniels puts the options into context.

Understanding testing requirements is a pre-requisite for designing or installing an emergency lighting scheme. Testing involves a mandatory programme of daily, monthly and annual testing of every luminaire in the system, and accurate records of each inspection and test must be recorded. Maintained luminaires and exit signs must be checked daily, all emergency luminaires tested typically for less than 10 minutes every month and for their rated duration every year.

Property managers, building occupants or installers should already be familiar with the British Standard “Code of Practice for the emergency escape lighting of premises” BS5266 Part 1 when planning or considering an installation. If not, this is required reading. But they should also note a revised version that has just been published, replacing BS5266 – 1:2005 and BS5266:-10:2008.

The requirements set out in BS5266: Part 10 are to be incorporated into the new version of Part 1, but this clause is dispersed into several references to testing in the revised version of Part 1.However the requirements to test and maintain the emergency lighting installation are clearly stated in the Regulatory (Fire) Order.

You should also note that BSEN62034, first published in 2005, which covers “automatic test systems for battery powered emergency escape lighting”, is also under review. It is expected to be republished in its new form in mid-2012. Reference is also made in the new version of BS5266 Part 1 to the need to determine whether automatic testing systems comply with this standard.

Manual or automatic?

A testing regime can be either manual or automatic. Manual testing requires one or a team of reliable and experienced technicians or trained staff. In larger buildings this can be a very costly and labour-intensive exercise. Note that the new BS5266 Part 1 states under 12.3: “Routine inspections and tests: Emergency lighting systems should be inspected and tested at regular intervals. The testing should be performed either manually or, if the responsible person is unable to ensure that this will be done, by using an automatic test system.”

By contrast, automatic testing provides a reliable method of regularly checking that the battery is connected and receiving charge, that the lamp will strike correctly when required and that the battery capacity is sufficient to run the lamp for the rated duration period.

You would therefore be advised to familiarise yourself with the various automatic testing systems designed to suit every eventuality and operational requirement. The simplest system is the stand-alone form of automatic test emergency lighting, not connected to any other device. Here the results of automatic tests are typically indicated using a single bi-colour LED on luminaires. The results of tests carried out by stand-alone automatic test emergency lighting need to be recorded manually and entered into a logbook.

To avoid manual recording of test results, there are ranges of automatic test emergency lighting, which interconnect to a control panel where the results are collected. The interconnection may be through data cabling or could be by radio link. More complex systems allow the programming of tests from the control panel, or more often connection to a PC, offering a visual display of the installation, including connected luminaires in test and faulty luminaires.

BS5266-Part 1 proposes the use of automatic test systems to BS EN 62034, which specifies the basic performance and safety requirements for individual products and components for use with emergency lighting systems on supply voltages not exceeding 1000V.

Having a fully addressable emergency lighting installation that also carries out regular luminaire testing can offer considerable cost benefits, meeting legal obligations and allowing facilities staff to concentrate on other maintenance work.

Consider LEDs…

An important consideration when designing your emergency system is the amount of energy it will use. LED emergency luminaires have the advantage of requiring less power than fluorescent equivalents, not least because the batteries operating the LEDs can also be smaller and require less power to charge them. This represents a significant reduction in energy required over the life of an installation.

Further benefits of using LEDs in emergency lighting is that they are virtually unbreakable, have a long life and are unaffected by extremely low temperatures. The design of the LED luminaires has dramatically improved in recent times – bulkhead lamps, which have done the job effectively but are obtrusive and out of place, have been superseded by LED equivalents such as P4’s Quatrum LED range, providing a lower cost and more aesthetically pleasing design. LEDs offer a smaller footprint and superior energy efficient performance for specific locations and for safer evacuation along escape routes and open areas.

Consult an expert

Modern emergency lighting has truly come of age. But as ever, do not take any risks and make sure that you consult an expert or ICEL (Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting) member company when planning and specifying a scheme.