Construction Fire Risks

Any system that reliably marks a means of egress in the event of power failures, hazards, or other crises can be referred to as an emergency lighting option. Normal supplies of AC power in buildings often fail during an emergency. Even if such power failures occur, emergency lighting ensures that stairways, aisles, corridors, ramps, escalators and other passageways leading to safety stay lit to direct evacuees to the nearest escape route and make possible a smooth and swift exit. Building codes in many countries require that all non-residential structures are equipped with emergency lighting.

Some facilities are required to keep a minimum level of emergency lighting along the entire means of egress whenever the building is occupied. A lot of the spaces where emergency lighting is required are vacant for large portions of the day. Any building is dark if there is a power failure. The emergency lighting you provide in your workplace will depend on the size of the building.

There might not be any need for emergency lighting if you do not use the building in the night and there are windows to let in natural light. You may be able to use a few torches kept in convenient places for small buildings where few people work. Self-contained emergency light fittings contain a battery charger, a rechargeable battery and a light source, which is usually an 8-watt fluorescent tube.

Some units have spotlights, and these are ideal for taller rooms or large spaces. Emergency lighting units are available in two kinds: “non-maintained” (which come on only in a power failure) or “maintained” (which can be on all the time). The chief reason for emergency lighting is to ensure people can find an exit safely. It is not necessary to use exit sign emergency lights, but this would usually be recommended in addition to normal emergency lighting.

Emergency lighting almost always consists of unattractive boxes fixed to ceilings and walls. There may be no need to supply any emergency lighting for a building if there is no public access after dark and it is otherwise unoccupied. Non-maintained, three-hour emergency exit box lights, which sit on the floor and are plugged into the nearest socket outlet, can provide temporary emergency lighting.

Photoluminescent technology is another option that can lead occupants to safety when the electricity goes out and a building must be evacuated. Powered only by ambient light, photoluminescent safety signs and path markers glow in the dark similar to children’s novelty decals found at any craft store but at a much higher level. Even if you have emergency lighting installed in larger workplaces, we recommend that you make torches available to staff.

Aeroplanes, trains and ships have used photoluminescent emergency marking systems for years to aid evacuations, particularly when power is out. The signs and markers are completely automatic in operation and need little maintenance. The real push for photoluminescent technology came from New York City, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombings.

After a terrorist attack shut down the London Underground and put the United States and other worldwide transportation systems on high alert in July, 2005, American Lighting Products, Inc., in a move to help ensure uninterrupted illumination in critical interior areas such as subways, stairwells, elevators, basements and tunnels, etc, developed a bomb-proof bulb that glows in the dark when the power goes off, even if the bulb breaks.

Switches are usually wired into the lighting circuits to help you test the emergency lights. If you use torches, simply check that they work by briefly turning on the torch on a weekly basis and change the batteries every few months to make sure that they aren’t flat when you need to use them. You need to keep a record of when you tested your emergency lighting systems.