Power outages, or failures and cuts of the basic lighting are a significant problem to building occupants. They may cause disruption in industrial and commercial facilities and in residential buildings. The role of artificial light is not only about ensuring proper working conditions, but it is also intended to increase safetyin the event of a lack of daylight and during power outages.
Legislation vs. the need to install emergency luminaires.
The provisions included in the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure on technical conditions that should be met by buildings and their location, which is based on the PN-EN 1838 standard that specifies the places where the use of emergency lighting system is necessary. First of all, it has to be kept in mind that emergency lighting is a general term, and the escape lighting is only a part of it. The emergency lighting system must be activated automatically. It is connected to a secondary independent power source and installed when a possible power outage could threaten life, health or property, and when there is a likelihood of a danger to the environment.
Why use escape lighting and why emergency lighting?
Emergency lighting is used to ensure that people can get out of a building as quickly and safely as possible during a potentially dangerous situation or process. It is also intended to enable activities to be completed or continued efficiently when the basic lighting fails.
The escape lighting, on the other hand, is strictly intended to show a quick and safe escape route and illuminate it when the building is threatened by a critical situation such as a fire.
Differences between emergency and escape lighting
A noticeable difference between the emergency and escape lighting is the operating time.. The escape lighting should have a longer operating time of 2 hours from the basic lighting failure. For the emergency lighting, the required time is at least 1 hour.
Consult our experts if you are not sure whether the lighting in your organisation meets all the standards and ensures the safety of your employees.
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