Emergency Lighting Overview

Any building used for commercial purposes, whether office, warehouse or industrial is required by OSHA regulations to have emergency lighting installed from all work areas, throughout all egress routes for that building. This lighting must turn on automatically in a power-loss situation, and remain lit for a minimum of 90 minutes, assisting workers who are leaving the facility. Additionally, illuminated exit signs are required, both at the actual exits, and providing direction to the exit.

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Emergency Lighting Construction

An emergency lighting unit consists of anywhere from one to three lights attached to a control circuit and a battery; all in an integral unit. This control circuit is in turn attached to the building’s electrical power wiring. When power is lost to the building, the control circuit senses this and automatically turns on the lights, which draw their power from the battery. When the building has power, the control circuit maintains a full charge to the battery.

View our types of emergency lights:

There are a number of styles of emergency lights available. Thermoplastic and steel are the two most common materials for emergency light cases. Thermoplastic lights are typically more stylish, working well in offices, meeting rooms, vestibules and corridors. However, for heavy-duty applications, such as warehouses and manufacturing facilities, steel construction is better. There are also explosion proof lights, which are intended to be used in areas where there is a danger from flammable vapors.

We offer a wide variety of affordable, compliant, and reliable emergency lights. Call us right now at 800-480-0707 to aska question, place an order, or for more information.

Planning and Installing Emergency Lights

When your building is being designed by the architect, part of the design work should include planning for the location and size of your emergency lights. As mentioned earlier, they need to cover all egress routes from the facility, including outside the facility, up to a public way or other safe area.

When planning changes to your facility, whether temporary or permanent, you must take into consideration any needed changes in emergency lighting. Closing off of a doorway, installing a wall, or changing modular offices can create the necessity of adding additional emergency lights and illuminated emergency exit signs. Even establishing temporary work areas requires the addition of emergency lighting and illuminated exit signs.

Emergency lighting must provide a minimum of 1 foot-candle of illumination 1 foot above floor level, throughout all egress routes. As part of your building acceptance tests, a light meter should be used to test for this minimum illumination level. Should your emergency lighting not provide this minimum requirement, your company, not the architect, will be liable.

In all cases, the lights will need electrical power from the building, both to charge the light’s battery and to allow the internal circuitry to sense power loss to the building.

Emergency Light Testing

It is essential that you test your emergency lights periodically. Regulations require both monthly and annual testing. All emergency lights are manufactured with a push-button test switch to facilitate testing. This switch interrupts power to the lighting unit, causing the circuitry to turn on the lights. As an option, you can buy emergency lighting units that have built-in automatic test circuitry. This eliminates the manpower requirements for the monthly test, though not for the yearly test.

Monthly test requirements:

Press test button for 30 seconds monthly to test integrity of the battery and light
Check each light for physical damage
Check alignment of beams and adjust if necessary
Check AC and charge lamps if applicable

Annual test requirements:

90 minute full functional test
Disconnect AC power supply to each unit
Check battery and lens for corrosion
Clean unit and lens
Adjust beam for proper alignment
Check charging system voltage
Check battery voltage output

Records should be kept of these tests, in case of OSHA inspection of your facility. Call or email us for more information about emergency lighting fixtures, codes, and applications.

By Brad Wray+

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