Many building owners see emergency lighting as a ‘fit and forget’ system a survey has found, with almost 75 per cent considering the maintenance of such lighting as being simply a ‘tick box’ exercise.

However, according to The Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL), the legal requirement is that non-domestic buildings must be safe at all times, even if mains power failure occurs. Therefore, nearly all such buildings must have emergency lighting fitted and maintained and this is the legal responsibility of the person in charge of the building.

However, according to The Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL), the legal requirement is that non-domestic buildings must be safe at all times, even if mains power failure occurs. Therefore, nearly all such buildings must have emergency lighting fitted and maintained and this is the legal responsibility of the person in charge of the building.

Emergency Lighting falls into two primary categories. 'Standby Lighting' and 'Escape Lighting’. Standby Lighting allow companies to continue to occupy a building safely during a power outage with up to 3 hours of 'Standby Power' and has nothing to do with evacuation. 'Escape Lighting' on the other hand, illuminates the escape routes when there is a need to evacuate the building.

The survey also highlighted that the emergency lighting installations in half of our public buildings no longer meets the required lighting standards. The top five failings reported were:
•Inadequate emergency lighting signage
• Inadequate illuminance levels
• Blocked emergency exits
• Batteries not charged or not working
• Inadequate logbook records being kept