Designing an Emergency Lighting System

Installing emergency lighting systems protects employees and customers from harm should you experience a power outage. In practically every business in the UK, emergency lighting isn’t just a recommendation, it’s the law.
 

Per The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, business owners must ensure that they have taken the appropriate steps to guarantee a minimum level of fire safety, including through the provision of emergency lighting.

At Wells Electrical Contractors, our NICEIC-approved contractors ensure you’ve got an emergency lighting system that complies with the law and saves lives. It all starts with creating a bespoke design that leaves no stone unturned.

Why emergency lighting design needs to be carefully considered

No two businesses will have precisely the same emergency lighting design because every building’s layout differs. For emergency lighting to be effective, it must have proper placement and coverage to provide sufficient lighting levels to allow people to evacuate safely.

Simply having emergency lighting isn’t enough to comply with the law. According to one study, 44% of English firms didn’t have the correct emergency lighting, even when it was present. Non-compliance is a serious issue, and if the worst happens, it could even result in criminal charges.

In short, emergency lighting is only half of your legal obligations. The second part is having a well-designed system that accounts for the intricacies of your building’s layout.

Check out our comprehensive guide to emergency lighting installation. 

Emergency lighting design: Risk assessment

Aspects of your comprehensive risk assessment that we will cover include:

·   Positioning of signage.

·   Positioning of luminaries.

·   Minimum required lighting levels at floor level.

·   Legal minimum illumination levels.

·   Required response times between the failure of normal lighting and the emergency lighting switch-on.

Your risk assessment is primarily guided by BS 5266-1 regulations, which are the UK’s regulations specific to emergency lighting. We’ll also account for any unique risks to a safe, orderly evacuation and how your emergency lighting will fit into your overall fire safety plans.

How the emergency lighting design process works

Emergency lighting design follows a tried-and-tested process to guarantee that businesses have a system that saves lives while achieving the necessary legal compliance. At Wells Electrical Contractors, we follow a defined five-phase strategy that covers everything from the initial consultation to the sign-off of your new system.

Step one – Risk assessment

All designs start with a risk assessment that analyses risks relevant to your business and your site’s layout. It happens within the context of the UK’s fire safety regulations, so your design aligns with your obligations.

We’ll cover factors like the type of building, number of occupants, hours of use, available escape routes, dangerous equipment, and high-risk zones.

Step two – Site survey

It’s vital that we map your building’s layout to determine where emergency lighting must be positioned to facilitate an evacuation, wherever your employees or customers are in the building at the time.

This requires one of our engineers to physically inspect your premises, noting layouts, dimensions, and any hazards that could stand in the way of an evacuation. We’ll also define escape routes and available exits.

Step three – Identifying specific lighting needs

Different environments present different challenges. It means tailored solutions are needed to deal with potential safety issues. For example, areas that are nearly always highlighted when designing emergency lighting systems include:

·   Stairwells

·   Lifts

·   Control panels

·   Bathrooms

·   Fire alarm call points

Businesses within high-risk industries also often have different needs from conventional offices and shops that require extra consideration.

Step four – Building the best emergency lighting system

After preliminary investigations and full site surveys, we’re now ready to move on to building a high-performance lighting system that complies with UK law.

We’ll discuss different systems, such as maintained, non-maintained lighting, and combined emergency lighting fixtures. This is also where we’ll perform lux-level calculations throughout your building to ensure you meet the minimum 1 lux for escape routes and 0.5 lux for open areas.

Other factors include:

·   Shadows

·   Uniformity

·   Power sources

·   Lighting duration vs. risk

It’s a collaborative partnership, so we’ll be working with your team every step of the way to ensure that you understand your new system and why it’s designed and installed in a particular way.

Step five – Installing your lighting system

The final step is where we’ll actually install your lighting system and test it to check that it will perform under real-life conditions.

We’ll turn to BS-7671 regulations during the installation and perform functional testing to simulate mains failure. Additionally, we’ll provide a commissioning certificate to enable you to prove that your lighting system complies with all relevant requirements.

Note that regular emergency lighting testing is required, including a full-duration test once every year. Our engineers are qualified to perform these tests. Allow us to set up a testing schedule that minimises disruption to your day-to-day operations.

Designing and planning an emergency lighting system with Wells Electrical

Planning an emergency lighting system shouldn’t be considered a box-ticking exercise. We hope you’ll never have to rely on it, but if you do, it’s the type of system that’s proven to save lives.

With over 65 years of experience and a nationwide reputation that precedes us, we’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the country, including Smyths Toys and Bluecoat Liverpool. Our end-to-end services deliver on everything from design to installation and ongoing testing to give you peace of mind.

If you’re ready to design your emergency lighting system, get in touch with us now.