Emergency Lighting Systems:
What The Law Says

How To Purchase Emergency Lighting (UK Only)

If you are looking for a comprehensive system to cover an entire workplace, you will be best taking advice from a fire safety consultant, but if you just need to purchase a number of individual units or illuminated emergency exit signs, I can recommend Screwfix as a reliable and good value supplier.

With over thirty years experience, they are one of the most reputable suppliers offering a particularly wide range of safety equipment. Their service includes next day delivery and a 30 day money back guarantee, which makes them hard to beat.

Provision Of Emergency Lighting

Another duty of the 'Responsible Person' (see the page on the Regulatory Reform Order) is to ensure that escape routes and exits are in place and that these are “provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting".

The main purpose of your emergency lighting systems is to illuminate escape routes in the event of a power failure, so that everyone can still find their way safely out of the building. When doing your Fire Risk Assessment you should follow all the escape routes and ensure that they are sufficiently lit.

The type of emergency lighting systems that will work best for your premises is going to depend very much on the physical properties of your accommodation, and the complexity of the layout. The best approach is to be clear where you need light first, and then consult a specialist with regard to finding the best solution to meet that need.

Your emergency lighting systems will need to cover the following areas:

• Every exit door
• Emergency escape signs
• All emergency escape routes
• Lifts
• Fire extinguishers
• Break glass call points
• Any safety equipment or machinery that would need to be closed down in an emergency
• Outside each exit from the building

The length of time that emergency lighting systems needs to stay on after being activated can vary from about one to three hours. As well as obviously being on long enough to evacuate the building, it is more helpful if they are on long enough so that occupancy of the building can continue during a short power cut.

Emergency lighting systems can be either 'maintained' (on all the time) or 'non-maintained' (they only come on when the power is cut off). If you have a large building with maintained emergency lighting, you are going to use a lot of electricity over the course of the year. Very low energy LED 'tubes' are currently being developed, which could be used in your emergency lighting instead of fluorescents, last about ten years, and use a fraction of the electricity.

Emergency Lighting Systems - Maintenance and Testing

The Responsible Person must make arrangements to regularly test all the emergency lighting in the premises. While some modern systems have self-testing facilities, the majority of emergency lighting systems will need testing manually.

The testing method will vary depending on the type of emergency lighting systems you have installed. Usually there will be a switch operated by a 'fishtail key' (a small forked key that fits into a tamper-proof slot). This sort of test should be carried out regularly, probably monthly, activating the emergency lighting just long enough to make sure they illuminate correctly.

A 'full discharge test' should be carried out annually. This is when the emergency lights are activated and allowed to stay on until they go off, fully discharging the batteries. The timing of such tests is important, as the premises should not be occupied for the following 24 hours while the batteries recharge.

It is highly recommended to have your whole emergency lighting system checked over by a suitably qualified contractor once a year.

More details of testing and maintenance of emergency lighting and other safety equipment can be found on the Equipment Testing and Maintenance page. You will also find a several templates for Maintenance and Testing Forms at the bottom of that page.

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