Emergency lighting for commercial buildings

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person for a non-domestic building in England must ensure that escape routes are adequately lit, including emergency lighting where the normal lighting supply cannot be relied on. Most commercial buildings need some form of emergency lighting: offices, retail units, warehouses, and any premises where the layout, occupancy or lack of natural light during an evacuation could otherwise leave people unable to find their way out.

Emergency lighting works alongside the rest of a building’s fire protection rather than in isolation. A fire alarm tells people there is a fire and that they need to leave; emergency lighting is what lets them actually do that once they are moving, particularly if the fire or fault has already taken out the mains supply. The two systems are assessed together, and gaps in either one tend to surface during a fire risk assessment, which is usually where the requirement for a system, or for changes to an existing one, first gets identified.

Illuminated exit signs mark the route to a final exit and identify doors that lead out of the building, using the standard running man pictogram with directional arrows where a route is not obvious. Signs need to be positioned so that at least one is visible from any point on an escape route, legible at the distance people will be viewing them from, and consistent in the direction they indicate, so nobody reaches a junction and finds two signs pointing opposite ways. Internally illuminated signs are powered from the same emergency lighting circuit as the luminaires around them; externally illuminated signs rely on a separate light source and need that light source to also be on emergency supply. We specify and install signage as part of the wider system design rather than as an afterthought once the luminaires are in.

A competent emergency lighting design starts from the escape routes identified in the fire risk assessment, not from a generic layout. We work out where luminaires and signage are actually needed: along escape routes and at their intersections, on stairways, at each final exit, at changes in floor level, near firefighting equipment and alarm call points, and in any open area over a certain size where occupants could otherwise be left in the dark without a clear route to follow. The design also sets the illumination levels the installed system needs to achieve and the duration it needs to run for, both specified in BS 5266-1 and calculated against how the building is used, how long an evacuation might reasonably take, and whether occupants can find their way out unaided or need a higher level of provision.

Design is where most compliance gaps are set right, or set wrong. A system installed without a proper design might light the right corridors but miss a fire door, a change in level, or a fire extinguisher point, and none of that becomes obvious until an inspecting officer, an insurer, or an incident finds it. We design against the escape strategy for your specific building rather than retrofitting lighting to whatever wiring happens to already be there.

Emergency lighting is only reliable if it is tested regularly, and BS 5266-1 sets out what that testing involves.

Monthly test. A short functional test, simulating a failure of the normal lighting supply for long enough to confirm that every luminaire and exit sign illuminates and is functioning correctly. It is often called the “flick test” because of how briefly the supply is interrupted, just long enough to see everything light up and to check nothing has failed, without draining the batteries.

Annual test. A full duration test, where the emergency lighting system is required to run for its full rated duration, typically three hours, confirming that every luminaire can sustain the required illumination for the length of time it is designed for. This is a more disruptive test than the monthly check and needs planning around when the building is empty or at low occupancy, since luminaires under test are not available to assist an evacuation while the test is running.

Both tests, and any remedial action taken as a result, need to be recorded in a logbook for the system, which forms part of the evidence a fire risk assessment, an inspecting officer or an insurer may ask to see. We carry out monthly and annual testing on a scheduled basis and keep clear, dated records of what was tested and what was found.

The detail of an emergency lighting installation varies with how a building is used. Open-plan offices generally need coverage along corridors, at exits and over any open area beyond a certain size, with non-maintained luminaires suiting most spaces that already have good ambient lighting. Retail premises tend to need maintained luminaires and signage that stays consistent with customer-facing spaces that may be unfamiliar to the public, plus clear coverage of stockrooms and back-of-house routes staff use daily. Warehouses and industrial premises often need a design that accounts for high ceilings, racking that can obstruct sightlines, and escape routes that are longer and less obvious than in a typical office. We take these differences into account for industries and premises types we work with, rather than applying one specification everywhere.

If you are not sure whether your building’s emergency lighting is adequate, up to date with testing, or even present in the right places, we can help you work through it. Get in touch through our contact page to discuss a new installation, a system that needs bringing up to standard, or ongoing testing and maintenance.