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Imagine this: it’s late at night, and there is an earthquake, a significant one that spares your building but damages the power lines in the area, which leads to an instant blackout.
You try to make your way out of the building, but notice the corridor is pitch black. You want to evacuate as soon as possible due to the risk of aftershocks, but you can’t because you are unable to guide yourself to the emergency exit.
You can’t see the door or the stairs, and are left terrified in pitch black with maybe just your phone’s flashlight. While you do eventually make it out, you put your life at incredible risk because you take so long to get out.
This is a terrible and nightmarish example, but one that is completely plausible, especially when emergency lighting failures occur.
Emergency lighting systems are used when the main power supply fails, either due to a power cut, natural disasters, or a fire.
The role of emergency lighting is to automatically turn on in such situations and illuminate important areas and guide the occupants to safety.
Read on to find out what emergency lighting systems are, how they work, the most common emergency lighting failures, and much more:
These lighting systems can be seen throughout commercial and residential buildings. You will often notice them as a small to medium-sized “box” over exits and corridors.
This housing contains the battery, light, and controllers inside. Emergency lights charge through the grid and can instantly turn on when there is a power cut. The controller inside the housing switches to backup power in the blink of an eye!
Emergency lights use high-lumen LED lights that are designed to provide high luminance without taking a lot of power.
Properties that would generally need emergency lighting include:
As you might have guessed, emergency lighting installation and maintenance are regulated by law that defines when and where it is required, the level of illumination it must provide, and how often it should be serviced and maintained.
Lighting systems within buildings can be inspected by regulatory authorities, and if problems occur during the inspection, then building owners may face severe fines.
This is why many building owners make sure that they have these systems regularly inspected by a professional technician.
Technicians know the ins and outs of these lighting systems and are well-versed with the faults, which makes them highly effective at diagnosing and fixing issues.
So, if emergency lights are so great, why do they sometimes fail?
Let’s be clear, the chances of emergency lighting failures are extremely low. In fact, the only reason why these lights fail is due to human error or negligence. Since modern emergency lights are made using strict standards and need to be compliant, they are designed to be robust.
However, unfortunately, there are some common reasons why these lights can fail. Let’s explore the most common issues:
Emergency lights work on batteries. They power through the grid when everything is working as it should, and as soon as there is a blackout, the battery takes over.
In some cases, battery failures can lead to the lights not being turned on or staying on for shorter durations. Battery degradation happens over time. When you first install emergency lights, the batteries are typically at 100% health, but with wear and tear and excessive charging and discharging, the battery chemistry can give out and begin to deteriorate.
This can result in shorter duration times, like a few minutes rather than up to three hours, or a complete failure. Old batteries (4-5 years old) can also fail, often without showing prior signs of problems.
This is why maintenance of these lights is so necessary. Through inspections, technicians can check the battery health and ensure that the system is running as it should.
Emergency lights use LED technology to illuminate areas. Even though LEDs are highly reliable and robust, sometimes they may fail to illuminate due to several reasons.
The most common issue is a faulty LED driver or control board. This is perhaps the most prominent issue in LEDs. In fact, when LED lights stop working, it is rarely a problem with the diodes.
LED technology uses solid-state hardware, meaning that there are no moving parts and the LEDs themselves are pretty straightforward and have very little chance of failure.
Driver or board problems are far more common because these electronics are more susceptible to overcharging, fluctuations, short circuits, or surges.
Modern and compliant emergency lights typically come with surge protectors, but if the lights aren’t periodically maintained, then the individual components within the housing can fail, which can lead to the lights not turning on at all.
Sometimes failures occur due to the layout of the lights in buildings. Professional installers strategically install these lights so that there is an overlap between one emergency light in one area and the next one in another area.
This enables people to follow a path that guides them to safety. However, if the lights are installed sparsely, you will often see dark patches in stairwells and corridors.
This is also considered a failure and can result in an unnecessarily increased risk during emergencies for occupants.
These problems also extend to signage lights. For example, the exit sign light may point in the wrong direction, may be blocked by equipment, or may be damaged. All these issues are serious and can cause problems during high-stakes moments.
Finally, the most common and pressing problem with emergency lights comes from negligence.
Lack of testing and maintenance is by far one of the most common ways that these lights can fail. Maintenance activities are meant to keep these systems running for the long-term.
In most cases, a great maintenance contract with a professional company will result in seamless operations. You will never need to double-check the lighting systems as the technicians will take care of battery issues, damages, and even blockages or obstructions.
Unfortunately, due to negligence, some buildings may be at an increased risk of disaster. In this case, an inspector usually finds no lighting logbook, no evidence of monthly tests, no record of annual tests, and no maintenance or repair records.
Typically, emergency lighting can be serviced and tested daily, monthly, and yearly.
Daily inspections involve a visual check of the power supply indicators to make sure the emergency lighting system is fully functional. These tests take about 20-30 seconds but can only be conducted on systems powered by a central battery.
According to the British Standards 5266, all emergency lighting systems must be tested at least once a month. Monthly tests focus on a “flick” test, where the power is cut for a particular lighting system to simulate a blackout. This test can reveal how effectively the light works and whether it operates as intended.
Yearly tests dive even deeper and check the battery integrity as well as the internal systems. These tests aim to figure out and confirm if the emergency lights remain on for the duration specified by the British Standards (at least 3 hours).
When should you conduct these tests? Here are a few things you must keep in mind:
There are two primary types of tests for emergency lighting systems that can help reveal problems:
These tests simulate a power failure that is done intentionally by physically cutting off the mains supply to see if the emergency lighting system is working as it should.
When the mainline is turned off, someone would have to manually go through the entire building and check all the lights to ensure that they are all working as intended.
Once the function of the lights has been confirmed, the power line must be turned back on, and the inspector must again go through the building to ensure that the lights have turned off and are now charging.
Automatic tests are not as disruptive and time-consuming. They are conducted by professionals who use tools to determine the current going to the lighting system from the breaker itself.
These tests are designed to be thorough and can help highlight faults such as surges, which can damage the battery and lead to failure.
Emergency lights are categorised in two ways. Knowing what type of lighting system you have can significantly help you determine the best way to service and maintain the lights and avoid failure:
These types of lights are powered directly from the main and remain on just like normal lights.
They are typically a part of the property’s normal lighting system. The only difference is that when the power goes out, these lights will remain on since they will switch to battery power.
Maintained lights can be seen in shopping malls and parking areas. In public places and buildings such as bars and cinemas, where the normal lights are often dim, these maintained lights are mandatory.
Fire exit signs and recessed downlights are all part of maintained emergency lights.
These types of lights are powered by batteries, which are in turn charged by power coming from the mains supply. They are separate from the lighting system and can be seen usually turned off around important waypoints around a building.
These are classical emergency lights that come on during outages. These lights can provide up to 3 hours of luminance on a single charge, making them a great option for all types of buildings.
Typical examples of non-maintained emergency lights include LED bulkheads and LED twinspots.
There are three ways to get the most out of these lighting systems:
We have already talked about the importance of maintaining these lights, but the truth is that these lights are part of the larger electrical system in your premises.
While the lights themselves might not show problems, there might be a problem in the wiring leading up to the lights, or there might be a breaker failure during an outage.
This is why building owners must focus on comprehensive and complete maintenance of the entire electrical system and not just the lights.
Comprehensive inspections by a professional company like Calder Electrical can highlight not just problems but also inefficiencies that can save you money in the long run.
There are several types of emergency lights on the market, and even though you might be tempted to go with the cheapest models, we recommend that you get at least a mid-tier light that uses a durable and reliable battery.
In most cases, cheaper lights are often the first to fail because they use subpar materials and components to bring the price tag down.
These lights may have a lower investment cost, but they will surely result in headaches and even increased costs in the form of repairs or replacements.
When it comes to emergency lighting, you can’t just wing it and go the DIY route.
You might think that installing these lights is simple, but there are a lot of best practices that go into the installation of something as crucial as emergency lights.
Professional companies use their decades of experience and trained technicians to build a blueprint for your electrical system, which includes the layout of the emergency lights.
They decide the best areas to install the lights, the correct angles, and how to ensure that there is an overlap in illumination when the lights are turned on. These are small but very important details that only professionals give importance to.
We have been providing electrical services to residential, commercial, and industrial properties for over 40 years and are specialists in all aspects of electrical installations, maintenance, and testing.
We are NICEIC registered, follow the current wiring regulations, and have experienced and fully qualified electrical engineers on hand to deliver a professional and high-quality service that includes emergency lighting installation and servicing.
We have been undertaking electrical work since 1976 and are specialists in the field. If you have unplanned issues within your home or business, we can provide a call-out service to rectify and solve any problems.
Our call-out services include emergency repairs, scheduled maintenance, fault finding and diagnostics, installation services, safety inspections, and emergency lighting and power solutions.
Contact us here or call us on 0800 612 3001 for more information on emergency lighting systems and common emergency lighting failures found during inspections.
Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
