Emergency Lighting

If there is an emergency in your workplace, have you considered whether there is adequate lighting to enable people to safely escape?

In the event of a fire on your work premises, your normal lighting system could fail and plunge the building into darkness. Anyone inside the building could struggle to get out.

As an employer, you have a legal duty to carry out a fire risk assessment and part of this involves taking a look into your emergency lighting requirements.

How do I know if my workplace needs emergency lighting?

You may not need emergency lighting if:

• Your premises are never occupied during the hours of darkness and you have adequate natural light coming through the windows.
• Your workplace is used at night but there is sufficient street lighting outside which shines through the windows.
• You are based in a small building and have rechargeable torches strategically placed around the premises.

However, if your premises have complicated escape routes, staircases or members of the public are on site regularly then you must look at your emergency lighting requirements. If escape routes and exits require artificial lighting, you should consider the need for an electrical emergency lighting system.

What should emergency escape lighting do? 

• Indicate escape routes clearly.
• Provide illumination along escape routes to allow safe movement towards the final exits.
• Ensure that the fire alarm call points and firefighting equipment can be quickly and easily located.

Where should you put emergency lighting units?

• At the intersection of corridors
• At each exit door
• Near to each staircase so that each flight of stairs receives direct light
• Close to each change in floor level
• Outside each final exit
• Within lift cars
• Near firefighting equipment
• Near fire alarm call points.

If your risk assessment determines that an emergency lighting system is required then that system should be designed and installed in accordance with British Standard 5266 Part 1 or an equivalent standard.

Emergency lighting systems can be maintained (i.e. illuminated all the time), which is only required in licensed premises, or non-maintained (i.e. only illuminated when normal power fails).

 Testing and maintenance plan

• Daily – a responsible person should check all lamps in maintained systems are working
• Monthly – the system should be tested by turning off the power supply or using a test switch if provided for a maximum period amounting to 25% of the rated time.
• Every six months – test the system by interrupting the power supply for an hour (on a three hour rated system) and test the generators.
• Every three years – test the system for the full working duration.