The Importance of Emergency Lighting

Published on 5 April 2012

Emergency lighting is a necessity in all office buildings especially with those with interior rooms. Each unit of emergency lighting has its own power source making it ideal in any mains power supply failure situation. Schools, offices, hospitals, and other public sector buildings are just a few places you will find emergency lights.

Emergency lights are hard wired into the building’s main power supply. When the power is on the lights remain off and their individual battery sets are recharged. As soon as the main power supply fails the emergency lights turn on. Most emergency lighting systems can provide sufficient light to a building for as long as 4 hours. Others may only provide enough light necessary for an evacuation. Once the main power supply returns to the building the emergency lights turn off.

The placement of emergency lighting is something that isn’t always easy to figure out. When making the decision on where to place emergency lighting get help from a professional electrical contracting company – like Thamesgate. Electrical contractors will be able to advise you on the best locations to fit in with the requisite national standards and guidelines, and your own Health & Safety plan on site. This is so you will be able to provide the best lighting while providing those in your building the means to a safe evacuation if necessary.

Emergency lights must be tested regularly as their rechargeable batteries do not last forever. It is important to make sure that your emergency lighting will not fail should the main power supply fail. All emergency lighting systems come with a tester button. Simply push the button on the light pack and the lights will light up. If they do not light up then their batteries are no longer any good and need to be replaced. Do this as soon as possible, you don’t want to wait until the main power goes out to learn that you don’t have emergency lighting either.

Aside from a test on the battery set, each battery can be visually inspected, and then impedance tested. Typically the batteries will require replacement in years 3-5 and 7-8 depending upon whether they are 5 or 10 year design life. In addition the batteries will need to be disposed off in an eco-friendly way and removed from site by a licensed Waste Carrier.

Please see our Emergency Lighting services guide or contact us for further information.

Written by Nick Watkins.

Posted in Electrical Contracting