Licht wissen 10 Emergency lighting safety lighting

Light and safety are closely linked. General lighting – lighting that is dependent on regular mains electricity – is widely understood by operators and users and documented accordingly in the relevant regulations and guidelines. In the case of mainsindependent emergency lighting – lighting which is activated only after a fall or failure of mains voltage – the same level of understanding cannot be expected.

licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Free Download at www.all-about-light.org 2 01 licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Light and safety are closely linked. General lighting – lighting that is dependent on regular mains electricity – is widely understood by operators and users and documented accord- ingly in the relevant regulations and guidelines. In the case of mains-independent emer- gency lighting – lighting which is activated only after a fall or failure of mains voltage – the same level of understanding cannot be expected. Understanding emergency lighting is made more difficult by the multiplicity of standards, stipulations and guidelines relating to it. As a result of the harmonisation of national and in- ternational norms, significant standardisation has taken place here in recent years – espe- cially with regard to terminology. Emergency lighting is the umbrella term. It denotes lighting that is activated when general lighting fails. Where emergency lighting is used to allow a building to be evacuated safely or to enable potentially hazardous work operations to be safely terminated (in the event of a mains power failure), it is referred to as safety lighting. That is the main topic of this booklet. Under the German Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG), employers are required to conduct a hazard assessment of all work premises and workplaces. Where this reveals that a power failure and the resulting failure of general lighting would present a hazard for employees, a safety lighting system needs to be installed. This booklet takes account of occupational health and safety requirements as stipulated in the new technical workplace regulations (ASRs) and the relevant rules of the employers’ liability insurance associations. It also looks at the passages relating to safety lighting in building regulations and examines the contents of lighting and electrical standards. The development of the LED has radically transformed the products used for safety lighting. The LED light source is going to pervade every area of emergency lighting. In future, attention will need to be paid not only to this technological step change but also to barrier-free escape routes and dynamic guidance systems. Technical regulation is increa- singly international. Europe is (by necessity) growing together. The primary focus must always be human needs and the primary purpose of safety lighting must be to help enable human beings to evacuate areas safely in the event of a failure of artificial lighting. Prof. Dr. Bruno Weis 3 Editorial [Titel + 01] No electricity, no light: power failures knock out lighting. In hospitals, schools and places of assembly, mains- independent emergency and safety lighting needs to kick in immediately. It enables buildings to be evacuated safely, facilitates orientation and reduces risk of accident. 4 licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Emergency lighting for safety Page 6 Light in a power cut Page 8 Safety lighting Page 10 Escape route safety lighting Page 12 Safety lighting for work premises Page 16 Anti-panic lighting Page 20 Standby lighting Page 21 Safety signs Page 22 5 Escape sign luminaires Page 24 Luminaires for safety lighting systems Page 26 Safety lighting operation Page 30 Application examples Page 34 LED light source Page 46 Standards and ordinances Page 48 Series of publications, Imprint Page 50 6 licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Escape signs A white stick man on a green background or a stylised green man on a white background? There are two escape signs currently in use. Which one is correct? Newly installed emergency lighting systems should incorporate the new sign (shown above), which complies with ASR A1.3 and DIN 4844-2. But the old escape sign (below) remains valid. licht.de advises against mixing old and new signs in an existing system. 03 04 OLD 02 7 [02 + 03] Every power failure presents haz- ards. Sudden darkness triggers fear: the rea- son for the blackout is unknown and people have difficulty getting their bearings, espe- cially those who are not familiar with the building. This is why it is mandatory for many buildings to be equipped with mains-inde- pendent escape route signs and supplemen- tary safety lighting. A power outage can paralyse whole re- gions: trams stop running, computers crash and lights are instantly extinguished. In re- cent years, two “extreme incidents” made headlines in Europe. In late November 2005, masts carrying overhead power lines in the Münster area collapsed under the weight of snow and ice, causing a blackout that lasted more than four days. On 4 No- vember 2006, an event in the Emsland area gave rise to a power outage that left large parts of Europe without electricity for hours: a high-tension cable was shut down to allow a cruise vessel to sail down the Ems River to the North Sea from the Meyer ship- yards at Papenburg. Most power outages are more localised, however, and do not last for hours. Ger- many has the best record in Europe for maintaining a reliable power supply. But even it registers a rising number of outage incidents. On 8 March 2011, for instance, the Bundestag and a number of govern- ment buildings in Berlin had to manage without electricity for nearly 12 hours; on 13 July 2011, around 600,000 people in and around Hanover suffered a cut that left them with no power for up to an hour and a half. Power failures occur for a wide variety of reasons: violent storms, high winds, earthworks/excavation operations, fires and system overloads are just five of 27 possi- ble causes. Safety lighting No electricity means no lighting. This is when mains-independent emergency light- ing needs to kick in. In a building suddenly plunged into darkness, panic can quickly spread – especially if a large number of people are present and some are not famil- iar with the surroundings. A blackout in an unknown place for an unknown reason trig- gers fear. Escape sign luminaires identify routes out of a building, supplementary safety lighting along escape routes facilitates orientation and reduces risk of accident. Safety lighting is a must. Where safety lighting is required by law, responsibility for installing and main- taining it resides with the operator of the establishment; ensuring that a new or mod- ernised installation complies with regula- tions is the responsibility of the designer. Failure to comply with the stipulations set out in standards may be judged hazardous building practice, which is an offence pun- ishable under paragraph 319 of the German Criminal Code. Different rules Despite harmonisation efforts, the rules about where emergency lighting is required still differ – in some cases from one part of Germany to another but, in particular, be- tween Germany and other member states of the European Union (EU). Retailers in Germany and Austria, for example, are only required to install emergency lighting in sales premises over 2.000 m 2 . Blanket re- quirements are in place only in Belgium, Finland and Sweden. Compared to other European countries, Germany has relatively few blanket require- ments for emergency lighting. Moreover, the thresholds above which emergency lighting is mandatory are relatively gener- ous. What this means is that there are more places where employee safety is not guar- anteed in the event of a power failure. In terms of emergency lighting standards based on building regulations, Germany lags behind most of the EU. In some cases, obligations are imposed by occupational health and safety regulations: employers need to decide whether a failure of general lighting exposes employees on the premises to undue risk. If safety lighting is not installed, the employer is liable in the event of loss or injury. Emergency lighting for safety Lengthy power cuts – blackouts – are not rare. And in an increasingly networked world, the risk of their occurrence will grow. When general lighting fails due to a power outage, emergency lighting kicks in. It guards against panic and accidents. Emergency and safety lighting ensures that a minimum level of brightness is guaran- teed after a failure of the general lighting. But it also helps in other emergencies. Where a building needs to be evacuated, for example, it plays a key role in helping people unfamiliar with the building to get their bearings and find their way to safe areas along escape routes. Emergency and safety lighting is covered by a variety of standards, stipulations and guidelines. Employers, facility opera- tors, lighting designers and installers need to know the relevant requirements. They also need to be familiar with the terminol- ogy of this special area of supplementary lighting. In international standards and European di- rectives, ‘emergency lighting’ is now used as the umbrella term for mains-indepen- dent supplementary lighting. It is activated whenever mains voltage fails or falls. Emer- gency lighting includes ½ safety lighting and ½ standby lighting. The term ‘safety lighting’ is used to denote mains-independent supplementary lighting installed to ensure that a building can be evacuated safely or to enable potentially dangerous work operations to be termi- nated. Under the German Occupational Health and Safety Act, employers need to conduct a hazard assessment of the work- places they offer. If this reveals that a gen- eral lighting failure is likely to present a haz- ard, safety lighting is required to be installed. Standby lighting denotes mains-indepen- dent supplementary lighting that is installed where no hazard for employees is antici- pated. It provides light where there is no actual risk after a power failure but light is 8 Light in a power cut When general artificial lighting fails after a power outage, the emergency lighting system takes over. Where there is a risk of accident after a power failure, safety lighting needs to be activated. licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Emergency lighting Safety lighting Standby lighting Safety lighting where risk of accident is present in compliance with ASR A3.4/3 occupational health and safety regulations Escape route safety lighting in compliance with ASR A2.3 occupational health and safety regulations building regulations Anti-panic lighting Overview of emergency and safety lighting 05 © licht.de 9 still needed to allow key operations to be maintained. Subdivisions of safety lighting Safety lighting, in turn, is divided into: ½ escape route safety lighting and signs, ½ safety lighting for particularly hazardous work areas and ½ anti-panic lighting. The requirements that safety lighting needs to meet are spread over various standards. DIN EN 1838 sets out the requirements for safety lighting in emergency operation, i.e. in the event of a power failure. The current version of DIN 4844-1 deals with the light- ing requirements for safety signs during normal mains operation. The electrical requirements for system planning, installation and operation are contained in the draft standard DIN V VDE V 0108-100, published in August 2010 (for information [in German] about the cur- rent status of normative requirements, see www.dke.de, search term „Sicherheits- beleuchtungsanlagen“). The safety and electrical requirements that need to be met by luminaires for emergency lighting are defined in DIN EN 60598-2-22, published October 2008. 06 Key laws and ordinances Occupational health and safety regulations Occupational Health and Safety Act (ArbSchG) Workplace Ordinance (ArbStättV) Technical workplace regulations (ASR) Statutory accident insurers’ rules and regulations (BGV, BGR) National building regulations Ordinance Governing Places of Assembly (MVStättV) Ordinance Governing Sales Premises (MvkVO) Ordinance Governing Accommodation Establishments (MBeVO) Ordinance Governing High-rise Buildings (MHHR) Ordinance Governing Garages (MGarVO) Guideline for School Buildings (MSchulbauR) Ordinance Governing Hospital Buildings Model Guideline on Fire Protection Requirements for Conduction Systems Ordinance Governing Electrical Operating Areas Safety lighting ensures that work opera- tions with a high accident risk potential can be terminated safely and persons un- familiar with the premises are able to exit the affected rooms and areas safely in the event of a general power failure. National building regulations as well as occupational health and safety rules need to be ob- served at the design and installation stages. Safety lighting is divided into ½ escape route safety lighting, including escape route signs, ½ safety lighting for particularly hazardous workplaces and ½ anti-panic lighting. Features of safety lighting ½ Luminaires for illuminating and identifying an escape route need to be mounted at least 2 metres above floor level. ½ All escape signs at emergency exits and at exits along escape routes are illumi- nated or back-lit. ½ Where an emergency exit is not directly visible, one or more illuminated and/or back-lit escape signs need to be posi- tioned along the escape route. The standard DIN EN 1838 requires more than just good general illumination for es- cape routes. It stipulates that supplemen- tary lighting should be provided for other safety-relevant areas and potential hazard sites. So safety luminaires also need to be positioned at the following points: ½ at exit doors that need to be used in an emergency ½ near stairs, single steps or any other change of level ½ at emergency exits and safety signs ½ at any point where there is a change of direction ½ at any point where corridors or aisles cross ½ near any First Aid post, fire-fighting facility or alarm device ½ near final exits ½ outside the building up to a safe distance from each exit. DIN EN 1838 defines “near” as no more than two metres away. 10 Safety lighting Safety lighting must come on whenever there is a failure of general lighting that may prevent the safe evacuation of a building and thus present a risk of accident. licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 07 [...]... of a fire, an optical safety guidance system must additionally be installed 19 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 24 Anti-panic lighting Anti-panic lighting is the third category of safety lighting alongside escape route safety lighting and safety lighting for particularly hazardous workplaces The light it provides is intended to reduce hysteria and panic in an emergency At sporting... licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Safety lighting operation Wherever people are present in large numbers, safety lighting is a must Its moment comes when mains voltage fails In that event, safety lighting needs to be activated immediately by a back-up power source Standby energy is obtained from a “power source for safety services” Its purpose is to supply parts of an electrical safety. .. First Aid post, fire-fighting facility or alarm device [12] outside the building near (max two metres from) every final exit 11 © licht. de 12 © licht. de 11 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 13 14 12 15 Escape route safety lighting Escape route safety lighting needs to ensure adequate conditions for visual orientation along escape routes and in adjoining areas of the building Fire... 27 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Variant A: dedicated LED safety luminaires spacing = 15.6 m Emax = 5 lx Emin = 1 lx g2 = Emax/Emin = 5/1; Plamp = 2 x 3 W = 6 W; height of corridor: 3 m © licht. de 38 Variant B: general lighting luminaires as safety luminaires spacing = 8 m Emin = 19 lx Emax = 101 lx g2 = Emax/Emin = 5/1; Plamp = 3 x 35 W = 115 W; height of corridor: 3 m © licht. de... standard-compliant Emergency phone Location © licht. de 20 15 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Safety lighting for work premises Employers are obliged to protect the health and safety of their employees Among other things, this involves conducting a hazard assessment at all workplaces One question it needs to address is whether all employees can safely evacuate their workplaces in the event of a lighting. .. power failure The minimum luminance of the white contrast colour is 10 cd/m2, as required by DIN EN 1838 [35] … 60 minutes after a power failure The minimum luminance of the white contrast colour is 0.012 cd/m2, as required by ASR A3.4/3 25 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Luminaires for safety lighting systems Safety lighting is safe only if the luminaires used are of the highest quality... assembly rooms that are darkened for operational purposes, on stages and in per- 49 35 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 50 formance areas, safety lighting needs to be available in non-maintained operation What DIN VDE 0108 sets out as a mandatory requirement is still recommended: non maintained safety lighting must not automatically switch off when mains power returns Systems installed... it is always a strip two metres wide Wider routes need to be treated as more than one two-metre strip or need to be fitted with anti panic lighting (see page 20) 60° 60° 17 © licht. de 18 © licht. de 13 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting ½ general lighting failing Because most generating sets with combustion engines have a 15-second switchover time, however, battery-based systems are... © licht. de 23 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 28 32 29 33 30 34 31 35 24 Escape sign luminaires Escape sign luminaires are easier to recognise than ordinary photoluminescent signs There are several reasons for this, one of which is that the green safety colour is clearly identifiable even in emergency operation Escape sign luminaires are easily and correctly identified The green safety. .. of luminaires deployed as well as the power source for safety services used [47] Screenshot of an automated inspection and test system 33 licht. wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting 48 Application examples All ordinances, guidelines and regulations require safety lighting if there is a foreseeable risk of accident in the event of a general lighting failure Ordinances, guidelines and regulations . 4 licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Emergency lighting for safety Page 6 Light in a power cut Page 8 Safety lighting Page 10 Escape route safety lighting Page 12 Safety lighting for. 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Free Download at www.all-about-light.org 2 01 licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Light and safety are closely linked. General lighting – lighting. lighting needs to be activated. licht.wissen 10 Emergency Lighting, Safety Lighting Emergency lighting Safety lighting Standby lighting Safety lighting where risk of accident is present in compliance