Emergency lighting can save lives!

Emergency lighting by B-SAFETY save people’s lives! Emergency sign lighting ensures a continuous and indicative marking of escape routes, even during an outbreak of fire. Particularly in the dark and in dense smoke, well-placed ing will give escaping persons a life-saving orientation aid. Emergency lighting is defined as lighting that comes into effect during an outage of the regular artificial lighting. For work and assembly places the law prescribes emergency lighting where work places with particular risk or where escape routes are concerned. Photoluminescent safety signs do not fulfil the requirements of the DIN EN 1838. These are only permissible for marking escape routes if they are used in combination with the customary emergency lighting. In safety lighting, a differentiation is made between emergency route lighting and emergency route signs (emergency exit luminaire). The emergency exit luminaire is for marking escape routes and to indicate emergency exits. Emergency lighting can be operated in continuous circuit and stand-by mode. A safety light fixture in stand-by mode switches automatically to emergency operation upon interruption of the power supply to the regular lighting. An outage of the general power supply is constituted if the voltage decreases by more than 15% within a period of 0.5 seconds. In the continuous circuit mode, emergency light fixtures can be switched with the light fixtures for regular lighting. In case of a power outage or if the voltage falls below a certain level, the emergency lighting automatically switches over to emergency operation. Emergency lighting can take the form of single battery luminaires and light fixtures for centralised supply. A single battery system includes the power supply part in the luminaire itself. A single battery luminaire is an independently functioning unit that is connected directly with the mains and in case of a power outage automatically supplies the installed light fixture with energy. For a single battery one can use sealed, non-rechargeable batteries that are intended for conservation charging and can be used irrespective of its position. According to DIN EN 60598-2-22 the service life of the batteries is at least 4 years. In case of centralised supply, the safety light fixtures are fed during emergency operation from a central battery. These can be, for instance, lead accumulators which should also have a service life of at least 4 years. German lawmakers prescribe a regular inspection for safety lighting systems. According to DIN VDE 0108 a function test should be carried out weekly and an operation endurance test annually. In this case, it is obligatory to keep a record of all inspection results over the past 2 years. Should the system have an automatic test facility, e.g. an auto-test function, it is exempt from compulsory manual inspections. Emergency lighting fixtures are safety appliances that save lives in emergencies! Only an accurately functioning emergency lighting system can fulfil its protective function when the regular lighting fails.