Emergency lighting is lighting for an emergency situation when the main power supply fails. The loss of mains electricity could be the result of a fire or a power cut and the normal lighting supplies fail. This may lead to sudden darkness and a possible danger to the occupants, either through physical danger or panic.
Emergency lighting is normally required to operate fully automatically and give illumination of a sufficiently high level over time for the safe evacuation of a premises. Most new buildings now have emergency lighting installed during construction, the design and type of equipment is normally specified by the relevant local authority, architect or consultant.
SmartTec Systems can install, maintain and repair new or existing emergency lighting to your home or business, giving you total peace of mind that you are safe should you ever need them.
Duration of battery back-up
The building use and evacuation strategy dictates the battery back-up required for the emergency lighting system. Any building used as sleeping accommodation will require a minimum of three hours battery back-up. This includes hospitals, care homes, boarding schools and blocks of flats.
Types of emergency lighting.
Non-maintained – Non-maintained lights are luminaires which are not normally lit. The batteries continuously charge and a green LED showing when fully charged. When the power fails, the fitting switches on using its battery back-up supply and should last for a minimum of 3 hours.
Maintained – This is a luminaire in which the emergency lamps are lit all the time and operates as a normal light with all the other lights in the area from the mains supply, however when the power fails the maintained emergency fitting will continue to operate, but at a lower light level using the back-up rechargeable batteries.
Sustained – The emergency light has a separate light source for both mains and emergency mode, for Emergency Lighting.
