Place Emergency Lighting Properly for Safety

Why is the spacing and siting of emergency lighting so important?

UK fire safety legislation states that people in premises must be able to find their way to a place of total safety if there is a fire by using escape routes that have sufficient illumination.

The regulations, standards, and guidance on this issue are comprehensive and designed to ensure that each building’s particular needs are thoroughly examined and understood.

BS 5266, the code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises, offers guidance on the positioning of luminaires, minimum light levels, acceptable glare levels and minimum routine testing schedules. It states that, in open areas larger than 60 square metres, emergency lighting and signage should be installed.

Does BS 5266 provide all the information I need on this subject?

Not exactly. What it does do is provide a minimum standard that should be applied. It also gives guidance on specific hazards and points of emphasis that have to be accounted for.

The risk assessment that must be undertaken by a responsible person under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 should identify any specific areas that must be addressed. This includes making sure that the emergency lighting system is fit for purpose and is regularly tested and maintained.

It is important to bear in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all way of assessing the risk within a building. Buildings are all built differently and have specific uses. For instance, a hospital or home for the elderly will have different fire safety needs than an office.

What counts as a point of emphasis?

When designing an emergency lighting system covering escape routes, luminaires should be installed at points of emphasis -- mandatory locations that need to highlight specific hazards, safety equipment, and signs.

They should be installed at points of emphasis, such as areas near stairs, at changes of level, and near fire-fighting equipment and manual call points. Placement should occur at each change of direction, outside and close to each final exit, at first aid points, at exit doors, and near safety signs.

I’m about to install an emergency lighting system in a building that is used primarily by disabled people. Are there any particular requirements?

Any non-domestic building with more than one storey should provide a means of refuge for any person who cannot easily use fire escapes, lifts, and stairs. It is important to recognise that a disabled refuge should be illuminated to a higher level of illumination than normal escape routes.

Additional emergency lighting should be provided in toilet facilities and other similar areas exceeding 8 suqare metres floor area or with no borrowed light, and all toilets for the disabled.

What are the minimum lux levels that need to be achieved?

Achieving the correct lux level is a must. BS 5266 recommends a minimum of 1 lux in escape routes and 0.5 lux in open areas. Emergency lighting should also be positioned in such a way as to ensure that people are free from disability glare, which can prevent obstructions or signs from being properly seen.

There are also other areas identified in BS 5266 part 10 where higher levels of illumination are required. These include kitchens, first aid rooms, treatment rooms, plant rooms, reception areas, and crash bars at exit doors.

Once again, it is important to remember that these figures represent the minimum requirements, so in certain circumstances there may be a need for higher lux levels. This is something that should also be considered during the risk assessment.

Create LED Light

In about an hour, you can create easy do it yourself LED lighting with cr2032 batteries. These lights strands can be used on bicycles, walkways, on costumes or just as decorations. Because they are dirt and water resistant, they can be used indoors or out.

There are two methods for attaching the LED bulbs to the wire. One requires trimming the LED leads short and the other does not. Trimmed LEDs will be pushed into the speaker wire from one side without going through. They will then be glued in place. LEDs that have been left long will go all the way through and then the excess lead will be wrapped around the wire insulation. This can also be glued for extra stability and water protection. The wrapping just insures maximum contact between the leads and the speaker wire.

The first LED can be placed directly into the end of the wire

. Each LED should have a flat spot on the negative side. Speaker wire is usually two colors. Make sure that the negative side lead is always placed in the same color wire as all the other negative leads. So if you put the first LED's negative lead into the silver side, then all other negative leads should also go into silver.

After the LED on the end, the bulbs should be placed at even intervals along the wire. At the first interval, use the awl to poke holes into the insulation for the leads to go through. If you trim the lead ends into sharp angles, it will help with this process. Place the leads into the speaker wire as described above.

Once you have placed all the bulbs, strip about an inch of insulation from the end of the speaker wire. Take your batteries and stack them together. With a small piece of duct tape, secure the wire you used for negative to the negative side of the battery stack and the other wire to the positive side. Place the stack inside one of the bottle caps. Run a thin bead of glue around the rim of the cap and fit the other bottle cap over it to make a waterproof housing for the batteries.

When the power runs out, the glue can be removed fairly easily so that the batteries can be replaced. If it does not pull free, it can be cut with a sharp blade.

*One CR2032 battery has an approximate 200 mAh capacity. So the number of bulbs and the mA per bulb will tell you how many batteries you will need and about how long the power should last. More information about the program is available on the web site at soli-lite.

Can Consumers Cope With The High-Priced Switch?

There’s no question that LED illumination represents the next technological step in home lighting. But how many consumers feel the same way? Opinions are divided as they weigh the tradeoffs between LED price, performance, lifecycles, and environmental impacts.

The early attempts at home LED lighting failed. Its light output and color characteristics both were below standard. Today’s LEDs have improved, though, and their output and color performance probably are better than conventional light sources.

Despite those advantages, consumers still vacillate over LED prices. They also remain dubious about how long these products last and how much they’ll save in power costs after making that initial purchase. Environmental considerations are further down on their list of priorities.

 LEDs will last between 50,000 and 100,000 hours. With 8760 hours in a year, an LED operating 24 hours a day would have a lifespan of 5.7 years. An LED operating just eight hours a day would last 17.1 years. Consumers often wonder how we know that these LEDs will last that long, though.

An LED’s true lifespan is related to lumen depreciation. According to the Illuminating Engineering Society, once an LED hits 30% depreciation, its lifespan is over. In other words, an LED specified with a 100,000-hour lifespan could be used effectively for about 70,000 hours. It would still work after that, but with reduced lumen output.

Lifespan and junction temperature are key elements in LED reliability. Junction temperature is the temperature at the point where an individual diode connects to its base. Maintaining a low junction temperature increases output and slows LED lumen depreciation.

The junction temperature typically should be maintained below 120°C, requiring a number of heat dissipation strategies. The three principal means of heat transfer are conduction, convection, and radiation. Generally, LEDs are encapsulated in a resin that happens to be a lousy thermal conductor

The heat issues that LEDs create stem from the P-N junction, which is formed in semiconductors by the doping process, in effect creating two semiconductors. The boundary between the two is the P-N junction, which forms a one-way street for the current to pass through.

As electrons move from one crystal to another within the structure of the semiconductor, they fill electron holes and emit photons (light). The heat is generated from the P-N junction by electrical energy that has not been converted into light. This heat must be conducted to the atmosphere via a heatsink. The junction temperature drops when the total thermal resistance from the junction point to atmospheric release is minimized.

Drive current and ambient temperature also can influence the junction temperature. The higher the drive current, the greater the heat generated at the junction. Heat must be moved away from the junction to maintain the specified light output, lifespan, and color. The amount of heat that can be removed depends on the ambient temperature and the design of the thermal path from the junction to the surroundings.

Each LED lighting design must efficiently transfer as much heat as possible away from the LED P-N junction. A severely heat-stressed LED will lose efficiency and light output will diminish, possibly resulting in product failure.

There are other advantages, too. LEDs don’t emit ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which means that organic items like manuscripts and paintings won’t be degraded. LEDs also are useful in the kitchen because they don’t attract insects. Their light doesn’t flicker either, benefitting migraine sufferers as well.

Environmentally, LEDs are way ahead of conventional lighting systems. They don’t include toxic chemicals such as mercury, which can be found in fluorescent lights, nor do they rely on filaments or combustible gases to produce light. They also are manufactured from materials that can, in the main, be recycled.