We can never escape the sheer fact that emergency lighting and exit signs take up a crucial role in ensuring the safety and well-being of individuals within various facilities. These essential safety measures serve as guiding beacons during critical situations, offering vital illumination and clear evacuation paths.
Taking the time to understand the requirements and regulations surrounding emergency lighting and emergency exit lights is vital to maintaining a secure environment. In this article, we take you through some of the things you need to know about exit signs and emergency light requirements.
Understanding Emergency Lighting and Exit Signs
Emergency lighting and exit signs are vital components of safety systems that are perfectly designed to protect individuals in various facilities. These measures serve the vital purpose of offering illumination and clear guidance during critical situations, ensuring the safe evacuation of occupants.
Among the most common types of emergency lighting you should know about include standby lighting, emergency escape lighting, and high-risk task area lighting. As for exit signs, you can choose to go for photo luminescent exit signs and electrically powered exit signs.
Installation and Maintenance
Proper installation and regular maintenance is essential if you’re to get the most from your emergency exit lights. To allow for safe and accurate installation, it is essential that you engage a qualified and experienced professional electrician. And this is easy to see considering they possess the necessary expertise to handle electrical connections, wiring, and other technical aspects.
During installation, ensure you follow the specific requirements and best practices outlined by regulatory standards. These may include guidelines on the placement of luminaries, wiring connections, backup power sources, and testing protocols. Strictly adhering to these requirements allows for proper functionality and optimal performance.
Keep in mind routine maintenance is essential to identify and address any potential issues promptly. This entails inspecting and cleaning luminaries, checking battery performance, and verifying proper operation of control devices. It is worth mentioning that regular testing needs to be conducted to ensure that emergency lighting systems are in working order and meet illumination requirements.
As for the testing frequency and duration, it will depend on the regulatory standards and local jurisdiction. Common practices include monthly functional test and annual full-duration tests. Monthly tests mostly entail activating the system to ensure proper operation, while annual tests simulate a power outage to assess the system’s performance over an extended period.