The 4 different types of Emergency Lighting

In the event of any type of emergency, whether it be a fire or any other dangerous incident that has caused the power supply to your commercial building to drop, the first measure should always be to evacuate immediately in a safe manner. Having sufficient Emergency Lighting is critical to the overall safety of all occupants in a premises, it is the driving force for enabling a safe and swift exit of a building for all involved. No matter how familiar you are with your building, it is a different story when trying to navigate that same building in pitch black darkness.

How does Emergency Lighting work?

When normal lighting fails, Emergency lighting is in place to activate or remain active, in order to sign-post occupants towards the nearest safe exit. When power outages occur, Emergency Lighting will remain powered for as long as 3 hours, this to ensure that lighting remains available long enough for any people that have not yet exited a building. Once any issue has been rectified and power is made available again, the lighting will begin to recharge for future use.

Where will you find Emergency Lighting?

Emergency Lighting will most commonly be found above any exit signs, any exit doors, escape routes, as well as stairways and fire safety equipment. You can never be sure where on the premises people will be when an emergency like a fire occurs, because of this, the placement of lighting will and should be, very carefully considered. As mentioned above, many people will not be able to navigate even familiar areas when there is no lighting, so imagine when people find themselves in parts of a premises that they are even less familiar with. Emergency Lighting must be on hand to guide those people.

The 4 different types of Emergency Lighting

The following types of Emergency Lighting are listed below.

Standby Lighting

When a power outage occurs at your place of work, Standby Lighting is in place to provide backup lighting. This lighting will most often be powered by a backup emergency generator located on site. It is important to understand your site, as this lighting, unlike the other Emergency Lighting featured below, may not always be required. Its requirement will depend solely on the scale or type of your commercial premises.

Escape Route Lighting

Also known as Bulkhead Lighting, Escape Route Lighting helps provide the most prompt and safest route to a fire exit for all occupants on site. This type of Emergency Lighting is found in the ceiling and is installed to guide occupants along corridors or other similar areas towards safety. As with most Emergency Lighting the volume of this type will always depend on the type of premises the lighting is placed in. It is important to get an understanding of your premises as this will help you better realise the volume required for your specific site.

High-risk Task Area Lighting

For bigger commercial buildings, such as industrial facilities or factories, this type of lighting will be a certain requirement. This due to the type of work being undertaken by workers on site, the type of work that is being done in these spaces will require high power tools and machinery that vision cannot afford to be compromised whilst using. This to ensure a safe shut down can be performed. If regular lighting drops and there is no High-risk Task Area Lighting, a user cannot be confident that they wont pose a risk to either there own health and safety or their colleagues health and safety, due to the type of equipment they are regularly operating.

Open Area Emergency Lighting

Also known as Anti-panic Lighting in some other countries, Open Area Emergency Lighting, as you can guess by its name in other countries, this lighting is in place to prevent panic when normal lighting has dropped. It is deployed to guide occupants towards reaching an emergency exit in the safest and quickest manner possible. Found in open areas of a building, this lighting's functionality is to provide further support lighting to occupants in the event of an evacuation.

In the event of any emergency at your commercial premises, it is imperative that you are able to guide all occupants to safety as quickly and as safely as possible. If you require any testing, any replacement fittings, or any new installation of Emergency Lighting, don't hesitate to contact us today - 01604 696113.