What is emergency lighting?

When a power cut strikes – either due to a general power outage or as a result of an ongoing emergency, such as a building fire – emergency lighting automatically works to keep your building illuminated and enable safe evacuation of the building’s occupants. Most emergency lighting ‘luminaires’ – the technical name for a single lighting unit – are powered via a battery during a power cut situation. This battery is charged via your mains supply, and may be self-contained within the lighting unit or located centrally to deliver power to all your emergency lights at once. Meanwhile, standby lighting (which we’ll cover shortly) is typically powered via a backup generator unit. Emergency lighting can be ‘maintained’ (where the light remains on at all times whether there’s a power cut or not) or ‘non-maintained’ (where the light switches on when a power cut occurs). Since emergency lighting is a requirement for all commercial buildings, most existing commercial premises will already have emergency lighting installed. However, your current emergency lighting system may not be up to spec if it was installed a long time ago, or if your building is being used for a different purpose than the one it was built for.

What are the categories of emergency lighting?

Emergency lighting generally falls into two categories: Emergency escape lighting: designed to help facilitate safe evacuation Standby lighting: designed to enable regular operations to continue during a power cut Standby lighting is not legally required, although it can be vital for certain building types; such as hospitals and airports. Emergency escape lighting is also divided into three sub-categories; escape route lighting, open area lighting and high risk task area lighting. We’ll explain each of these in more detail below.

What is escape route lighting?

Escape route lighting both identifies and illuminates safe routes out of your building. This not only includes emergency exit sign units, but also bulkhead lamp units placed along the exit route.

What is open area emergency lighting?

Also known as ‘anti-panic lighting’, open area lighting enables building occupants to calmly reach a location where an escape route can be identified. Open air lighting is typically required in areas with more than 60m2 of floor space. Smaller spaces may also require open air lighting if the space’s layout or use presents additional hazards to escape.

What is high-risk task area emergency lighting?

For building occupants engaged in dangerous processes or surrounded by dangerous equipment, high-risk task area lighting provides the necessary light for carrying out safe shut-down procedures and avoiding hazards while escaping. High-risk task area lighting is not only important for preventing potential injury or death during an evacuation, but also for preventing further emergency situations that might arise from abandoning equipment; such as a fire in a commercial kitchen or an overload in a power station.

What is stairwell emergency lighting?

Stairwell lighting technically falls under standard escape route lighting. However, since they provide a crucial escape route for multi-storey structures, emergency lighting for stairwells generally require brighter and more extensive lighting.

Is emergency escape lighting a legal requirement in the UK?

Yes. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, all non-domestic buildings in England and Wales must provide sufficient emergency escape lighting to BS 5266 standards. Emergency escape lighting is also a legal requirement for common areas in flats and other multi-storey and HMO residential dwellings. Regular emergency lighting maintenance and testing is also a legal requirement; providing assurance that your emergency lights will perform correctly in an emergency scenario. We’ll cover testing in more detail shortly. As for Scotland and Northern Ireland, emergency escape lighting is required under the Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 respectively. However, depending on the size, purpose and typical hours of use of your building – plus the presence of any ‘borrowed light’ from windows – your building may already have sufficient emergency escape lighting without the need for additional luminaire units. You should always consult a safety assessor if you’re not sure whether your current lighting meets the required regulations.

Who is responsible for installing and/or maintaining emergency lighting?

For all fire safety requirements listed in the Fire Safety Order 2005 (including emergency lighting), the responsibility for implementing them falls on the ‘responsible person’ (RP). Some situations may have multiple responsible persons. In these cases, all individuals must work together to ensure the entire premises are protected. For commercial buildings, the responsible person is typically the employer which operates their business from within the premises. The building’s owner and anyone else who has control of the building may also be considered responsible persons. For multi-storey residential properties and HMOs, the responsibility for installing and maintaining emergency lights usually falls on the landlord. Letting agents may also share some of the responsibility.

Can I delegate responsibility for emergency lighting to a third party?

In most cases, you can leave the work of designing, installing and maintaining emergency lighting to a qualified professional. This third-party engineer will need to be knowledgeable in Fire Safety Order 2005 and BS 5266 standards, and any electrical work they provide will need to meet BS 7671 standards for electrical wiring. It’s ultimately your responsibility to check if your engineer is qualified for the job.

What are the consequences for ignoring emergency lighting legislation?

Don’t underestimate the importance of installing and/or maintaining emergency lighting. Without adequate escape lighting, you’re essentially putting you, your team and any customers that visit your site – or your tenants if you’re a landlord – in serious danger if an emergency situation should happen. Those who fail to provide adequate emergency lighting (and/or any other fire safety provisions) can face an unlimited fine or up to two years in prison.

Where do I need to place emergency lighting within my building?

The exact emergency lighting setup requirements for your business will depend on the size, layout and purpose of your building. You should always start by carrying out a fire risk assessment. From there, your fire risk assessor can help you design an emergency lighting system setup that can meet the required regulations.

How long do emergency lights need to stay on?

Once emergency lights switch on via battery power in a power cut situation, the duration of time that they can remain powered on has major implications for the safe evacuation and reoccupation of your building. Different building types and layouts will have different minimum emergency light duration requirements between 1 hour and 3 hours. However, emergency lighting that lasts 3 hours has become the de facto standard for all commercial premises. It’s the safest option in an emergency scenario; not only providing more time to evacuate, but also avoiding confusion for building occupants and potentially enabling faster reoccupation once the emergency is over. Keep in mind, your emergency light system’s batteries will need time to recharge once power is restored to the building. If you’re using 1-hour emergency lights, you’ll need to wait until the batteries are fully charged before you can reoccupy the building.

How often should I test my emergency lighting?

For most businesses, you’ll need to carry out a brief test once every month and a longer test once every year. The annual emergency lighting test checks your entire emergency lighting system for the full duration it’s designed to operate for. If your lights are designed to last for 3 hours, but run out of power before the 3 hours are up, they’ll need to be repaired or replaced as soon as possible. You can also purchase self-testing emergency lights which carry out their own monthly and annual tests automatically. However, no matter whether each test is carried out manually or automatically, the results of each test will still need to be manually logged. Certain businesses may need to carry out tests on their emergency lights more often than others. If in doubt, it’s always best to speak to an emergency lighting testing expert.

What is NICEIC?

A homeowner’s guide to electrical competent person schemes

If you’ve spent any amount of time searching for a domestic electrician in the capital, you might have seen the distinctive red-and-black logo of NICEIC floating around on electricians’ websites. You might have even seen it on ours…

But what does the logo actually mean? What is NICEIC? And is NICEIC accreditation important when choosing an electrician? We’ve put together this quick guide to provide some answers…

What is NICEIC?

NICEIC – or the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting – is a regulatory organisation for the UK’s electricians.

The organisation exists to ensure the safety and quality of electrical work across the country, by reviewing the work and competency of its registered contractors.

In other words, they help homeowners avoid cowboy electricians, by putting their seal of approval on qualified electrical engineers you can trust.

Under its Platinum Promise, NICEIC also offers a guarantee to remedy any non-compliant work performed by any electricians who were formerly registered with NICEIC (provided the original work was carried out within the last six years).

Today, NICEIC is part of Certsure, which also currently manages another electrician regulatory brand, ELECSA – more on them later!

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Is NICEIC the same as EICR?

NICEIC – or the National Inspection Council for Electrical Installation Contracting – is a regulatory organisation for the UK’s electricians.

The organisation exists to ensure the safety and quality of electrical work across the country, by reviewing the work and competency of its registered contractors.

In other words, they help homeowners avoid cowboy electricians, by putting their seal of approval on qualified electrical engineers you can trust.

Under its Platinum Promise, NICEIC also offers a guarantee to remedy any non-compliant work performed by any electricians who were formerly registered with NICEIC (provided the original work was carried out within the last six years).

Today, NICEIC is part of Certsure, which also currently manages another electrician regulatory brand, ELECSA – more on them later!

What is a NICEIC Approved Contractor?

NICEIC offers several different accreditation schemes for its members, each aimed at different areas of electrical expertise.

Approved Contractor is one such accreditation scheme. Any contractor who has joined NICEIC’s register and meets Approved Contractor requirements can carry out general electrical installation works with their approval.

In order to gain NICEIC approval, contractors must be able to demonstrate their up-to-date knowledge of BS 7671; the IET wiring standards and electrical installation requirements used in residential and commercial buildings across the nation.

Each contractor is assessed at the time of their application to prove their competency, and will need to pass further assessments at least once a year to renew their accredited status.

Electricians also need public liability insurance of £2 million or more in order to achieve NICEIC approval. £250k professional indemnity insurance is also required for contractors who carry out EICRs or periodic electrical inspections.

What is a NICEIC Domestic Installer?

Domestic Installer is another one of NICEIC’s accreditation schemes. While approved contractors are qualified to work with all property types, domestic installers work exclusively with residential properties.

The scheme is designed to confirm the engineer’s competency in Part P of the Building Regulations, which covers certain areas of domestic electrical work. As a domestic installer, your contractor will not only be able to install and/or repair electrical work safely, but will also be able to self-certify them for you.

Which brings us neatly onto the next question…

What is a Competent Person Scheme?

Any domestic building work – including certain electrical work – needs to be certified to ensure it meets building regulations and safety standards.

As we covered in our post on electrician myths and DIY electrical work, that means paying your local council’s building control department to come out and inspect the work for you.

But there’s another way – self-certification.

If your electrician is registered with a competent person scheme, they’ll be qualified to certify their own work; which means you don’t have to wait for a third-party inspector and won’t have to pay more in building control fees.

NICEIC’s approved contractor scheme and domestic installer scheme are both examples of competent person schemes. NICEIC themselves also offer a dedicated ‘competent persons scheme’, but this is aimed at contractors who are looking to self-certify other domestic building works (such as heating, ventilation and/or plumbing) rather than only electrical work.

Is NICEIC the same as NAPIT?

They’re different entities; but if you’re a customer, there’s not much difference between a NICEIC-registered electrician and a NAPIT-registered electrician…

Let’s explain.

NICEIC is just one of several regulatory bodies for electricians in the UK.

Others include:

NAPIT – the National Association of Professional Inspectors and Testers
Stroma Installer Certification
ELECSA
OFTEC – the Oil Firing Technical Association
BESCA – aka Building Engineering Services Competence Assessment
BFC – aka Blue Flame Certification

All of these organisations are authorised by the Government to operate competent person schemes.

Certain regulatory bodies have more expensive membership fees than others, which might reflect in the prices you’ll pay for an electrician; but you can generally expect the same level of expertise and safety from a registered electrician, no matter which of these bodies they’re registered to.

NICEIC remains the leading regulatory body for electricians; both in terms of member numbers and brand awareness amongst customers. NICEIC is also the only registering body that operates across all of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Like NICEIC, the ELECSA brand is now part of Certsure. ELECSA is also due to be retired in 2022, with all ELECSA-approved electricians becoming NICEIC-approved electricians instead.

Similarly, the former Benchmark Certification Limited brand – which used to be on the list of government-approved regulatory organisations – has since been acquired and absorbed by NAPIT.

Plus, the competent installer certification branch of Stroma is now owned and managed by NAPIT too; although it currently remains under the ‘Stroma Installer Certification’ banner.

It’s all a bit confusing, even for us sparks!

But don’t worry; it doesn’t really matter who owns what or which regulatory body your electrician is registered with.

As long as they’re registered and accredited with one of the government’s approved regulators for electrical works, you’re good to go.

How can I tell if my electrical contractor is registered?

When searching for an electrician, it’s always best to visit the Registered Competent Person Electrical website.

This site enables you to search domestic electricians in your area which are registered with a regulatory body (such as NICEIC) and accredited to safely carry out and certify their own electrical work.

You’ll find JC Electrical UK Ltd on there, too. That’s because our team is fully accredited with both NICEIC’s Approved Contractor and NICEI Domestic Installer schemes – so you can trust us for safe, competent and professional electrical work.

Our team offers everything from simple repairs and outlet installation to complete home cinema, audiovisual and home automation solutions. Call our team on 0208 839 9561 or email info@jcelectric.co.uk for more info!

What is NICEIC?

What is NICEIC?

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