All You Need to Know About Emergency Lighting Design
Emergency lighting is found in offices, industrial facilities, and commercial properties. It is one of the most essential, yet overlooked components of a safety program. The emergency lighting plays an important role in ensuring the safety of people in a building during a power failure. Like regular lights, emergency lighting solutions are not meant to illuminate the areas, rather they illuminate key areas to lead people to safety. Would you like to more about emergency lighting? This post explores the same.
A Brief Discussion On Emergency Lighting
As its name implies, this lighting refers to the battery-backed power light source that automatically turns on when a workplace experiences a power failure, and visually directs people to the nearest exit. Emergency lights are designed to work up to 3 hours after the power failure and they will recharge themselves once the power is back.
Emergency lighting has been identified by the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), as a part of a building’s safety program. The OSHA imposes fines up to $7000 for a first-time violation and up to $70,000 for consequent violations. Owing to increasing emphasis on safety, the emergency lighting design has emerged as an important consideration in recent years. The next section focuses on things to keep in mind when designing the emergency lighting map for your business.
Important Factors to Consider When Designing the Emergency Lighting
Emergency lighting design is important for any business irrespective of its size. The following tips will be helpful.
- Know About the Types of Lighting: It is essential to select the appropriate lighting luminaire and lighting solutions for your premises. As such, there are emergency lighting solutions for escape routes, open areas, and stairwells, they are as detailed below.
- Open area lighting: Also known as anti-panic lighting, this type of lighting is usually used to lit large open areas near the facility, which are a part of an emergency exit plan. If the open space is not the part of an emergency exit plan, then emergency lights are not mandatory. In this case, the only requirement is that the door must be illuminated with warning signs and emergency lights.
- Escape route lighting: This type of lighting is used to illuminate emergency exits or escape routes in any facility.
- High-risk area lighting: As the name suggests, this type of lighting is used to illuminate areas where dangerous materials may be stored or dangerous processes may be followed.
- Stairwell lighting: Most people use stairways to escape when an emergency occurs, so they must be properly lit. Thus, a minimum of 2 lux is required to light the area.
- Address the Important Lighting Codes: The organizations like OSHA and NFPA has set the rules for emergency lighting. It is important to get accustomed to the codes of lighting for your organization. These two governing bodies have set commercial emergency lighting codes for every type of organization. There are also codes for lighting every location in your organization. So, you must follow it thoroughly. Additionally, check if any other state code ordinances also exist. If so, it is mandatory to design emergency lighting keeping these codes in mind.
- Ensure that the Emergency Lighting Works for at least 1.5 Hours: The emergency lighting must be designed such that it remains lit for at least 1.5 hours post power failure. This is important because it will provide sufficient time to customers and employees to find their way out of the building.
- Perform Inspection and Testing of Emergency Lighting Systems: The maintenance of these systems is important because it reduces the liability of injuries, fines, or legal damages. It is always recommended to conduct a quick inspection of the exteriors of emergency lighting units. Most nation and statewide regulations mandate a monthly inspection.
- Maintain a Proper Documentation: Although inspection and testing is performed, it is also important to maintain proper documentation. The documentation provides proof that all required inspection and testing was performed to minimize the liability. This testing and inspection must be performed only by a certified technician, who must provide information such as the unit tested, type of service, date of service, and so on.
Along with the above-discussed factors, it is important to choose quality lighting luminaires and LED lights for your emergency lighting systems. E2 Lighting International, Inc. manufactures and provides a wide range of indoor and outdoor lighting solutions for residential, commercial, and emergency lighting needs. EBBU Tubes is one of the popular LED emergency lighting solutions provided by the company. The lighting is equipped with 3W emergency battery backup, which assures a 1.5-hour continuous service in case of power failure.
