Emergency Lighting

As part of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, all businesses must ensure that:

“Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting.”

All emergency lighting installations must comply with BS 5266-1:2016 standards for emergency lighting and BS 5839-6:2019 standards for fire detection and alarm systems.

It’s crucially important that your business operates in compliance with fire safety legislation. Penalties for breaching the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 can include an unlimited fine and up to 2 years’ imprisonment. (Of course, the punishments if you’re found liable for an injury or death as a result of fire safety negligence can be even worse.)

Maintained emergency lighting effectively provides constant lighting in both regular use situations and emergency situations.

In the event of a power failure, the lights will stay on. That’s because maintained emergency lights are fitted with a back-up battery, which continues delivering power to the lighting for a limited time as soon as the power goes out.

Maintained emergency lighting is useful in situations where regulations require constant lighting, as they’re effectively always ‘on’ and illuminating the space or sign fitting.

Maintained lighting also eliminates the need to install different sets of lights for regular and emergency use; since the same lighting provides dual functionality for each.

Non-maintained emergency luminaires are typically self-contained units which remain off in typical day-to-day use, but automatically illuminate in the event of a power cut via backup battery power. It’s designed to function only as emergency lighting, not as regular use lighting. As such, non-maintained lighting consumes less power than maintained lighting, and it’s generally easier and cheaper to install too.

Combined emergency lighting (also known as switchable emergency lighting or sustained emergency lighting) functions similarly to maintained lighting; providing standard lighting during regular use, and emergency lighting in the event of a power cut. The difference is, combined lighting can be switched on and off at the wall just like regular lighting; without interrupting the emergency functionality of the lighting system. Effectively, switching the light on at the wall sets the light to maintained mode, while switching it off sets it to non-maintained mode. Either way, if the power goes out, the light will come on automatically. Combined emergency lighting consists of two or more lamps. At least one lamp is hooked up to the regular power supply, with the other(s) hooked up to the emergency power supply.

An emergency lighting luminaire may be designed to draw emergency power from a ‘central’ backup battery (which is often shared by other emergency luminaires) or from its own ‘self-contained’ battery built into the luminaire. Compound self-contained luminaires are indeed designed with a built-in battery, which provides emergency power to the luminaire in a power cut. Crucially, though, they can simultaneously supply power to external luminaires known as satellite luminaires. A set of compound and satellite luminaires can be a more cost-effective alternative to a set of standard self-contained emergency luminaires, since each satellite luminaire won’t require its own battery.

Generally speaking, larger premises (particularly those open to the public, such as shopping centres and leisure facilities) will require maintained lighting systems. For smaller premises with relatively few occupants (such as SME offices and warehouses), non-maintained lighting may be sufficient for meeting safety regulations. The exact emergency lighting setup will vary depending on the size, layout and occupancy of your premises. You’ll need to carry out a risk assessment, which will help to determine your emergency lighting requirements. To support your emergency lighting installation project, JC Electrical UK can connect you with fire risk assessment specialists and carry out a complete site survey of your premises. Get in touch with our team to find out more.