When an emergency or power outage affects your business, reliable emergency lights and marked exits are essential. Emergency lights and exit signs are among the top safety tools for commercial buildings. They are created to assist in safeguarding employees and customers by guiding them to a safe exit during a fire or another emergency.
While it's clear why emergency lighting systems are important, it's equally crucial to understand the installation, testing, and maintenance rules established by local and national authorities to ensure all emergency and exit lights always remain in working order. So, what is required for emergency lighting?
Emergency lighting systems assist people in finding their way and safely leaving the building during a fire or security emergency. Emergency lights, exit signs, and panic doors are safety tools equally crucial to fire alarm systems. While the alarm signals a crisis, pathway lights and exits collaborate to ensure everyone exits safely.
In addition to assisting people in exiting safely, emergency exit lighting is mandated by law for every non-domestic building. We should briefly review the regulatory requirements for emergency lighting to allow you to avoid fire safety code violations.
Exit signs, as well as emergency lighting, are crucial for safety systems protecting individuals in various facilities. These measures provide clear guidance and illumination during critical situations, ensuring the occupants' safe evacuation.
The luminaire operates just like a standard mains version, but it changes to battery-powered emergency output when the power goes out.
The luminaire is only used as an emergency light source during a power failure. The continuous mains supply is only used to charge the battery.
Here, the battery power for emergency lighting is located in one central spot and distributed to all relevant lights during a power outage, whether maintained or non-maintained. All emergency lights will have a charge-healthy LED indicator, which indicates that the battery is being charged while there's a mains feed. When the power fails, the LED will turn off, and the battery will power the lamp.
This is where a lamp separate from the main lamp provides the emergency light source. The aim is to reduce any chance of the emergency lamp failing since the 'sustained' lamp is solely used during emergencies. This is only relevant for a maintained emergency luminaire.
This design is distinguished by where the illumination comes from. An LED light shines behind the exit lettering, making the faceplate disappear and revealing the word. The advantage of this type of design is partly aesthetic. It can look traditional if it is done with a wall-mounted housing and frame. Other edge-lit signs are sleek and futuristic, with a clear acrylic faceplate and no frame to speak of. It makes it look like the word is floating in the air. Edge-lit signs are also relatively simple to install and maintain, which is always a plus.
These exit signs meet all the normal specifications, but their housing hangs from a ceiling from hooks or hinges. This allows people to push them up against the ceiling when they need to get by.
Sometimes, you need your hallway and door lit from the same space your exit sign needs to hang. The combination design is a good choice in these circumstances. It's a traditional exit sign, complete with a test button and battery, with lights attached to the housing of the exit sign. Some are sleek, with a thin wall-mounted sign and forward-facing LED lights attached directly to the sides.
Other designs have lights stuck up on top of the sign. You need a little more space for this design, but it ensures that the hall and the door will be properly lit in an emergency. It's also efficient in terms of maintenance. The lights can be dealt with simultaneously with the exit sign, and you don't have to worry about taking up floor space with additional lights.
Anyone who wants a minimalist look in their halls or wants to avoid taking up much wall space will appreciate the recessed exit sign. The electrical parts and the rest of the casing are hidden up in the wall or ceiling rather than being attached to the wall or ceiling. The button you push to test the battery will be on the housing panel, though the exact position will depend on your particular model.
Meeting the requirements and adhering to established standards is crucial for emergency lighting systems. Many organizations and regulatory authorities offer guidelines to guarantee the safety and effectiveness of these systems.
OSHA doesn't have specific regulations regarding emergency lighting, but OSHA 1910.37 has requirements for marking and lighting exit routes. Based on the standard, lighting and marking must be appropriate and adequate. The standard states that all exit routes must be sufficiently lighted so that any employee with regular vision can see along the route. Here are additional requirements:
Each exit should be visible and marked by a sign reading "Exit."
Every door for exiting must not have any decorations or signs that block seeing the door for exiting.
Suppose the direction of travel to the exit or exit discharge is not immediately apparent. In that case, signs along the exit access must indicate the direction of travel to the closest exit and exit discharge. Moreover, you should always see the exit sign without any obstruction. Every door or hallway that might seem like an exit on the way to an exit must say "Not an Exit" or something similar. It could also show what it is, like a closet with a sign.
Every exit sign needs to say "Exit" in big letters at least six inches (15.2 cm) tall, and the main lines of the letters in the word "Exit" should be at least three-fourths of an inch (1.9 cm) wide.
According to OSHA's rules, the NFPA 101 (Life Safety Code) and the International Fire Code from the International Code Council satisfy their compliance needs. These codes are set by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
The NFPA 101 Life Safety Code details the requirements for forms of illumination acceptable for exit signs, including placement and visibility.
Section 7.10.1.2 states that a reliable light source must illuminate all exit signs and be legible in normal and emergency exit lighting modes.
Every new exit sign has to be positioned to ensure no point in a corridor leading to an exit is beyond the sign's viewing distance or 100 feet, whichever is shorter, from the closest sign. In every spot where it's not clear which way to go to find the nearest exit, we need exit signs showing the direction to go.
The Life Safety Code states that the sign must be of such size, location, distinctive color, and design that it's readily visible and must contrast with the background where it is placed. It also notes that no furnishings, decorations, or equipment impairing a sign's visibility shall be permitted. No brightly illuminated sign (except for exit purposes), display, or object near or in the line of vision of the required exit sign that could take away the attention from the exit sign shall be allowed.
Emergency light requirements are discussed under Section 7.9 of the Life Safety Code. Here are important points:
In the event of normal lighting failure, emergency illumination (when needed) must be provided for a minimum of 1.5 hours.
Arrange the emergency lights to give at least one foot-candle (equal to 10.8-lux) on average and a minimum of 0.1 foot-candle (or 1.1-lux) at any spot along the exit route at floor level. These levels can decline to at least 0.6 foot-candle (6.5-lux) average and 0.06 foot-candle (0.65-lux) at any one point at the end of the emergency lighting time (1.5 hours).
To prevent excessively bright and dark spots, the maximum illumination at any one point can't be more than 40 times the minimum illumination at any one point more than 40 times the minimum illumination at any one point (section 7.9.2.1.3).
The emergency lighting system should be arranged to provide illumination automatically in case of any interruption of normal lighting.
Testing emergency lights often is very important to ensure they work during emergencies—section 7.9.3 of the Life Safety Code discusses what's needed to test emergency lights regularly. NFPA recognizes three types of emergency lights - traditional, self-testing/self-diagnostic, and computer-based self-testing/self-diagnostic. Check the testing requirements below:
A monthly activation test, where the lights stay illuminated for at least 30 seconds.
A yearly test where the lights are activated for 1.5 hours to simulate a long-term emergency event.
Documentation of both the monthly and annual tests.
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