Bright New Ideas on Emergency Lighting
Date Posted: July 21, 2022
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas,
From FacilitiesNet: Emergency lighting is an important part of a facility’s overall emergency preparedness plan. Functional and effective emergency lighting can literally save lives in the case of any type of facility emergency. So, understanding codes and standards for emergency lighting is crucial to making sure emergency lighting is most effective.
Stacy Carr, electrical engineer design leader at Stantec, says emergency lighting can be accomplished in two primary ways – use the normal space lighting with an emergency power source or provide separate dedicated fixtures that only serve the emergency purpose. While the two options have not changed much in recent years, advances in technology have brought change to both methods.
“The dedicated emergency fixture – often referred to as a bug-eye – historically used a pair of low-performing incandescent lamps paired with traditional lead calcium or nickel cadmium batteries,” Carr says. “Today, lamps are efficient, low-wattage LED-type and some are offered with lithium batteries and self-testing electronics. The result is high-performing, longer-lasting, yet smaller unit that can reduce testing and maintenance. Where normal space lighting is used for emergencies, we now have central battery inverter system options that can include self-testing and diagnostics with the option to email reports automatically.”
One of the most recent advancements in lighting has been Power Over Ethernet (PoE) lighting. As Carr explains, while there was a gap for some time when it came to emergency options for PoE lighting, the industry is now starting to see UL listed options for emergency PoE systems.
“So, while the concepts of how we achieve emergency lighting haven’t really changed, the technology and options have advanced,” Carr says.
Indeed, as Rachel Fitzgerald, senior lighting designer at Stantec points out, the lighting industry is constantly evolving, with rapid advancements in LED technology and new product offerings. These advancements extend into the realm of emergency lighting products and tools.
“Gone are the days of the old school googlie-eyed emergency lights. Emergency lighting units of today are smaller profile, sleeker in design aesthetic, even minimalistic; all while having optimized performance,” Fitzgerald says. “As a lighting designer, it’s nice to have more tools in the toolbox that can seamlessly integrate into design solutions. Not only have emergency lighting units evolved, but our options for standby emergency power have also advanced. Centralized inverter systems offer more options and abilities for design integration options that previously were limited to localized battery units or generators. These centralized systems give designers more options to use as emergency powered lighting, while keeping the system infrastructure centralized for ease of maintenance.”
And while LED has taken the lighting industry by storm in recent years, Richard Vedvik, P.E. senior electrical engineer at IMEG Corp., says he believes the biggest change in lighting systems is not the change to LED, but the way controls have migrated to a network-based approach.