ELECTRICAL DESIGN

AND PROTECTION

SEMESTER 2, 2015

LECTURE 8
EMERGENCY LIGHTING
 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Relevant Standards

The following standards should be read and understood:

New Zealand Building Code Clause F6: Visibility in Escape Routes

AS 2293.1:1998 Emergency Evacuation Lighting for Buildings – Part 1: System Design,
Installation and Operation (as amended by F6)
AS/NZS 2293.2:1995 Emergency Evacuation Lighting for Buildings – Part 2: Inspection and
Maintenance
AS 2293.3:2005 Emergency Escape and Exit Signs for Buildings – Part 3: Emergency Escape
Luminaires and Exit Signs (as amended by F6)
New Zealand Building Code Clause F8: Signs

F6 – Emergency Lighting

The objective of emergency lighting is to help safeguard people from injury in escape routes during
failure of the main lighting. Specified features in escape routes must be made reasonably visible by
the lighting system, other systems or both, during failure of the main lighting.

Location

Emergency lighting must be provided in all of the following:

In all exitways.
o Exitways – All parts of an escape route protected by fire or smoke separations, or by
distance when exposed to open air, and terminating at a final exit.
o Escape Route – A continuous unobstructed route from any occupied space in a
building to a final exit to enable occupants to reach a safe place, and shall comprise
on or more of the following: open paths, smoke lobbies and safe paths.
o Open Path – That part of an escape route (including dead ends) within a firecell
where occupants may be exposed to fire or smoke while making their escape
o Smoke Lobby – That portion of an escape route within a firecell that precedes a safe
path or an escape route through an adjoining building which is protected from the
effects of smoke by smoke separations
o Safe Path – That part of an exitway which is protected from the effects of fire by fire
separations, external walls or by distance when exposed to air.
o Final Exit – The point at which an escape route terminates by giving direct access to
a safe place.
o Safe Place – A place of safety in the vicinity of a building, from which people may
safely disperse after escaping the effects of a fire. It may be a place such as a street,
open space, public space, or an adjacent building.
More than zom travel path
Morethan 250 People in an area .

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Olux

IUX 1
lux
0.2 y

At every change of level in an escape route e.g. stairs and ramps

In an escape route from the point where the initial open path travel distance exceeds 20
metres
In any occupied space designed for an occupant load of more than 250 people including all
escape routes serving that space
In any part of an escape route designed to serve more than 250 people
In the escape routes of the classified use Community Care

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Illuminance

Emergency Lighting must provide a direct illuminance of no less than:

Typical design
1 lux in exitways
1 lux at every change in level in an escape route, and
0.2 lux everywhere else

Or:

1 lux in exitways and 1 lux throughout the route

Or:

10 lux across the width of the route with a uniformity ratio along the route of not greater
than 100:1 (maximum to minimum) and 10 lux at changes of direction, changes of level and
where the route enters an exitway or final exit.

For certain areas of a building higher illuminance levels will be required, these areas are stated
.

below:

Areas with dangerous machinery

Areas containing hazardous processes
Clinical areas of hospitals
Prisons and other places of detention

Light Starting Levels Can't use generator for emergency light ( battery backup )

The systems for visibility must operate to the following percentages of their design levels within the
following times after failure of the main lighting.

80% in half a second in locations of high risk of injury i.e. machinery, hazardous processes,
clinical areas of hospitals, custody/detaining areas such as prisons, mental institutions, or old
people’s homes; or any part of an escape route designed for use by more than 250 people.

10% in half a second and 80% in half a minute in stairs and locations that are unfamiliar to
users

10% in 20 seconds, and 80% in one minute in all other locations.

It is this requirement that the emergency lighting starts within a certain time that conflicts with the
allowance to solely use a diesel generator (which takes at least 5-10 seconds to start and take the
load).

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Duration

The emergency lighting must be maintained for the following durations:

Continuously in buildings or parts of buildings where the occupants are required to remain in
the building until the main lighting system is restored, or buildings that have an evacuation
time of over 90 minutes
90 minutes for buildings with an:
o Escape height over 150 metres, or
o Evacuation time between 30 and 90 minutes, or
o Occupant load over 1000
30 minutes for all other buildings

The initial duration of operation provided by the installation of the time of commissioning is not to
be less than 1.33 x the in service duration required. This allows for battery degradation over time.
initial testing
It should be noted that singe point units (an emergency luminaire that has its own integral
rechargeable unit and battery pack) are supplied as an industry standard of 120 minutes. Specifying
a shorter time may result in a price premium as the item will be regarded as ‘special’ by the Supplier.

Building Consent

To meet the requirements of the building code compliance document the Acceptable Solution
(F6/AS1) is used.

Note that at building consent you will need to demonstrate full technical justification of the design,
the methods of checking the illuminance, and the method of checking the on-going compliance of
the building.

The emergency lighting design should be shown by computer modelling, using Dialux or AGI,
showing the emergency light levels in every room.

The emergency lighting calculation drawing should incorporate:

Correct wall zones (calculation grids are 500mm from the walls)
Initial illumination values in figures (not isolux lines)
Identify where no emergency lighting is provided and why e.g. outside of scope of works or
store room etc.
Measurements are at floor level
Calculation uses a direct method of calculation i.e. it does not include reflectances of room
and object surfaces.
Calculation uses a maintenance factor of 1.

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

An easy way to model this is to produce an isolux template for the luminaire and set the template
for 0.5 lux. Copy and paste the luminaire isolux template until the template 0.5 lux line touches. This
will give approximate locations for 1.0 lux overall compliance.

F8 – Exit Signs

Exit signs are provided in a building to safeguard people from injury or illness resulting from
inadequate identification of escape routes. As such signs must be located to identify escape routes
and to continue to meet the performance during failure of the main lighting for a certain period of
time.

Sign Locations

Escape routes shall be identified by exit signs which are clearly visible and shall be located:

At each point in the open path where a door giving access to a final exit or an exitway is not
visible in normal use.
To clearly indicate each door giving access to a final exit or an exitway
To clearly identify the route of travel through the exitway

Where exit signs are provided to identify a door on an escape route, the sign shall be positioned on
the leaf at or above handle height, or on a vertical surface within 600mm of the door. The sign shall
be positioned where it is least likely to be obscured from view and where it cannot be obscured
when the door is open.

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Sign Size

Height of lettering for “EXIT” sign

Height of pictogram for “running man” sign

For

If viewing distances are greater than 32m the following equations should be used:

𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑚𝑚)

𝑀𝑖𝑛 𝐿𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑚𝑚) = 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 50𝑚𝑚
210
𝑀𝑎𝑥 𝑉𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 (𝑚𝑚)
𝑀𝑖𝑛 𝑃𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚 𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑚𝑚) = 𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 50𝑚𝑚
160

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Types of Emergency/Exit Lighting Systems

There are two main types of emergency lighting systems in general use:

Single Point Systems

Central Battery Systems

Single Point Systems (SPU)

Single point units are emergency luminaires that have their own battery packs and chargers. When
mains power fails it automatically switches to the battery supply. This system provides added
redundancy over a centrally supplied system but requires increased maintenance having to replace
many individual batteries.

Central Battery Systems

This uses a UPS located in a fire rated room on the ground or basement level to supply emergency
lighting. The emergency lighting is supplied via fire rated cabling where the cables pass through
different fire zones. This system provides less resilience than SPU’s but offers better maintenance
options where only the UPS needs to be maintained not all of the individual battery packs. This is
typically used in hospitals or prisons where maintenance is an issue.

The recharge time for a UPS central battery system is a maximum of 16 hours.

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Types of Emergency Luminaires

@ Maintained Exit sign

These are on when the normal lighting is switched on and remain on when the power supply to the
normal lighting fails. This is the most common for exit signs.

• Non-Maintained

This is the most common for emergency lighting and they are not on when the normal lighting is
switched on and turn on when the power supply to the normal lighting fails.

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
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Sustained

This contains two lamps, one is used for normal lighting and the other lamp comes on if the power
to the normal lighting fails.

Spitfire / Satellite

A spitfire emergency luminaire is the most common type. This is a small 10W halogen or now 1W
LED round recessed luminaire that sits discreetly within the ceiling.

Bug Eye or Mickey Mouse Floodlights

Bug eyes are typically used for large areas such as halls or plant rooms where a higher output
luminaire is needed. DO NOT point these away from the main exit door, point them towards the exit
door so that people are not blinded when they try to escape.
large area , high

ceiling
¥0
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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
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Testing and Controls

Single Point Systems (SPU)

The following diagram shows the testing controls methodology for a single point system. The
emergency lighting must be turned on for their rated time e.g. 90 minutes without affecting the
normal lighting.

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Central Battery Systems

Central battery systems must use phase failure relays to sense if the normal lighting has failed which
will then operate the emergency lighting supplied by the UPS. The phase failure relays can also be
falsely triggered to test the emergency lighting circuits. A control diagram for a typical centrally
supplied system is shown below.

CONTINUATION
CONTINUATION

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 LECTURE 8 – EMERGENCY LIGHTING ELECTRICAL DESIGN
AND PROTECTION

Central Battery Systems

Central battery systems must use phase failure relays to sense if the normal lighting has failed which
will then operate the emergency lighting supplied by the UPS. The phase failure relays can also be
falsely triggered to test the emergency lighting circuits. A control diagram for a typical centrally
supplied system is shown below.

CONTINUATION
CONTINUATION

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