Emergency Lighting

Lighting that is activated due to a power failure of normal lighting is called emergency lighting. Emergency lighting is different from general lighting. It includes three types: backup lighting, evacuation lighting and security lighting. The conversion time is determined according to the actual project and related specifications. Emergency lighting is an important safety facility for modern public buildings and industrial buildings it is a closely related to personal safety and building safety. When a fire or other disaster occurs in a building and the power supply is interrupted, emergency lighting plays an important role for personnel evacuation and fire rescue work, important production, continuation of work, or necessary operational deployment.

English name – Emergency Lighting
Classification – Standby lighting, Evacuation lighting, Safety lighting for evacuation personnel, Fire rescue
Power Source – Generator Set, Energy Storage Power Source, Combined Power Source, etc.
Topics – Architecture

Advantage

In actual construction projects, the selection of emergency lighting power sources should be based on the number of floors, scale, complexity of the building, the number of people staying and flowing in the building, the characteristics of production and use in the building, the degree of fire danger, importance, and other factors. Emergency power supply settings, etc., comprehensively consider and compare technical and economical analysis to select the optimal emergency power supply lighting power. The combined power supply mode has the advantages of two or more power supply modes, and the disadvantages of the unilateral power supply mode can be complementary. Although the investment is large, it is still widely used in high-rise buildings and some particularly important large buildings due to its high reliability.

Development Overview

Countries such as Europe and the United States have developed early and fast fire emergency evacuation lighting technology and are in a leading position. Although our country started late, it has developed rapidly. There are many domestic companies producing fire emergency lights, but the product quality, performance and variety are still inferior to those of developed countries. gap. In addition, there are still problems such as high engineering design cost, difficult construction, and poor control. Self-provided power supply independently controlled fire emergency lighting is the main emergency lighting product in my country; centralized power supply centralized control fire emergency lighting widely used in large-scale projects in developed countries, accounting for the total market value, only dozens of enterprises in my country produce. The number only accounts for more than 10% of the total, and the supply is in short supply; the fire emergency lighting products of self-provided power centralized control, independent main power control, sub main power centralized control and sub main power control are not mature in my country. The product cannot meet the actual needs, and the problem of unreasonable product structure needs to be solved urgently.

Classification

Emergency lighting is the lighting used to evacuate, ensure safety or continue working when the normal lighting system cannot provide normal lighting due to a power outage.
Emergency lighting is different from general lighting, it includes three types: backup lighting, evacuation lighting, safety lighting.

Backup Lighting

Part of emergency lighting designed to ensure normal activity continues in the event of failure of normal lighting sources. Backup lights should generally be installed in the following locations:
  1. Production of hydrogen, paint, chemical industry, petroleum, plastic, celluloid and its products, production of explosives, and certain operating parts of solvents, etc. may lead to explosions, fires, and poisoning accidents after power failure.
  2. Places that are not operated or disposed of in time after a power outage will cause confusion in the production process or damage to the precious parts processed. Such as certain processes in the chemical and petroleum industries, chain steelmaking furnaces in metallurgy, aerospace and other industries, and certain departments in metal smelting and casting, heat treatment and precision machining workshops.
  3. A place where the lights go out can have a big political impact or serious economic damage. Such as important communication centers, radio stations, television stations, power plants and central substations, control centers, national and international conference centers, important hotels, international terminals, transportation hubs, important power supply stations (heat supply, gas supply), oil supply) and water supply facilities.
  4. It is a place for the Lighting Association to carry out public welfare fire rescue work. Such as broadcast venues, broadcast venues, control rooms, etc.
  5. Important underground structures will not work and move due to lights out. Such as subway stations, underground hospitals, large and medium-sized underground shopping malls, underground hotels, underground restaurants, underground garages and underground entertainment venues.
  6. A place where the lights go out can lead to the theft of cash and valuables. Such as the sales areas of valuables, cash registers, and bank cash registers in large and medium-sized shopping malls.

Evacuation Lighting

An emergency lighting component designed to allow personnel to easily and accurately find exits from buildings in the event of a failure of the normal power supply. Generally, evacuation lighting should be provided in the following locations:
  1. Crowded, dense public buildings. Such as auditoriums, large conference rooms, theaters, cinemas, cultural palaces, stadiums, large exhibition halls, museums, art galleries, large and medium-sized shopping malls, large waiting halls, terminal buildings and large hospitals.
  2. Large and medium-sized hotels, large restaurants and other buildings.
  3. High-rise public buildings, super high-rise buildings.
  4. A densely populated underground building. Such as subway stations, underground hotels, underground shopping malls, underground entertainment venues, etc., as well as large-area buildings without natural lighting.
  5. Large industrial plants and large numbers of people of special importance.

Security Lighting

Part of emergency lighting used to ensure the safety of persons in potential danger in the event of a failure of the normal power supply. Generally, security lighting should be installed in the following locations:
  1. When normal lighting in an industrial plant goes out due to a power outage, there can be serious bruises, burns, etc. hazards in the dark. Such as circular saws, with exposed tools without protection.
  2. When the normal lighting is extinguished due to a power failure, the rescue work of critically ill patients cannot be carried out in time, which may delay the rescue time and endanger the patient’s life. Such as hospital operating rooms, emergency rooms for critically ill patients, etc.
  3. After the normal lighting is turned off due to a power failure, it is easy to cause panic due to crowds gathering and unfamiliar environmental conditions, which may cause personal injury or death, or communicate with the outside world in an inconvenient elevator.

Conversion Time

The conversion time is determined according to the actual project and related specifications.
  1. The switching time of the standby light is not more than 5s;
  2. The switching time of evacuation lighting should not be greater than 5s;
  3. The switching time of safety lighting should not be greater than 0.5s;
The determination of the conversion time is mainly based on the necessary operations, processing and possible accidents and economic losses. Some places require shorter conversion times. For example, the time of the cashier counter in the shopping mall center should not exceed 1.5s; for production sites with serious danger, it should be determined according to the actual production needs. For evacuation lighting and back-up lighting, it is easy to achieve with automatic switching. Auto-start and auto-transfer are possible even when using a diesel generator set as an emergency power source. For safety lighting, due to the extremely short conversion time of only 0.5s, diesel generator sets cannot be used as emergency power sources, and fluorescent lamps cannot be used as light sources. Momentary incandescent lamps must be used and must be automatically converted.

Continuous Lighting

It is not difficult to see from the types of emergency lighting power sources and the requirements for conversion time that the continuous working time of emergency lighting is limited by certain conditions. It is generally stipulated that the continuous working time of evacuation lighting is not less than 30min, which can be divided into 6 levels of 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180min according to different requirements. The continuous working time of backup lighting and safety lighting should be determined according to the specific requirements of the place of use. For emergency lighting systems connected to the power grid or generator sets, its continuous working time is easy to meet the requirements; for battery-powered emergency lighting systems, its working time is limited by the size of the capacity, and it is not suitable for places that require continuous work for a long time. When using a battery pack, it should be considered in conjunction with a generator set. In this case, the battery pack is only used as a transitional power supply for emergency lighting, so its continuous working time can be appropriately reduced. When choosing an emergency lighting power source, the continuous working time should be determined according to the specific situation.

Power Supply/Source

The selection of emergency lighting power supply should be based on various factors such as the type of emergency lighting, conversion time, continuous working time, the characteristics of various power supplies, and the objective needs and requirements of actual projects.

Power from the grid is separated from the normal feeder circuit

This power supply has the characteristics of short conversion time (the conversion time can easily meet the requirements of various occasions), long continuous working time, and reliable operation. So this kind of power application is more common. Especially in large and medium-sized cities and large and medium-sized factories, this power source is relatively easy to obtain. For public buildings and workshops, due to production and work needs, when there is a power grid backup power supply, it should be used as an emergency lighting power supply first. It is not economical to provide this power source exclusively for emergency lighting. The emergency power supply and emergency lighting power supply of electric equipment shall be arranged comprehensively in combination with the actual situation of local power and the actual situation of the project. To keep the backup lighting and fire pump room in production, the same backup power source as the production power equipment and fire pump should be used, generally obtained from the grid.

Diesel generator set power supply

For emergency generator sets, due to the long running time of the motor, the generator set in the standby state often takes about 15s to start when the power is cut off. Therefore, it can only be used as emergency lighting power supply for evacuation lighting and backup lighting, and cannot be used alone. Security lighting. It is neither economical nor reasonable to have a generator set dedicated to emergency lighting. In high-rise buildings, generator sets are often required to meet fire protection requirements; in some industrial production plants or transportation centers, they are often considered together with the power equipment required for production and operation.

Storage power supply

Battery power supply can be divided into three types: the built-in battery of the lamp, the battery pack set centrally, and the battery pack set centrally in the partition. type. The built-in battery in the light is an emergency light with its own power supply. The method has high power supply reliability and is convenient for rapid increase and decrease conversion. Line failure has no effect, and battery damage has little effect. The disadvantage is that the investment is large, the continuous lighting time is limited by the capacity, and the operation management and maintenance requirements are high. This method is suitable for buildings with few emergency lighting, scattered facilities and small scale. The advantages of centralized or centralized battery pack power supply are high reliability of power supply, fast conversion speed, less investment compared with self-provided batteries, and more convenient management and maintenance. The disadvantage is that a special room is required, and the battery failure affects a large area. When the power supply distance is long, the wire cross section is large, which will increase the copper consumption, and the fire protection of the line must also be considered. This method is suitable for large buildings with many emergency lighting fixtures and centralized lighting fixtures. Therefore, in important public buildings and important underground buildings, it is sometimes necessary to cooperate with other types of emergency lighting power sources, which is more economical and reasonable. However, if such a power source already exists in a building such as a computing station, and the capacity is sufficient, it can be used as an emergency lighting power source for that location.

Combined power supply

That is, the power supply method is a combination of any two or more of the above-mentioned power sources.
Due to the difference in the structure and reliability of the above-mentioned power supplies, the requirements and application scope of the system are also different. Therefore, in practice, it is sometimes difficult to select only a certain emergency lighting power supply to meet the requirements, and it is also difficult to be safe, reliable, economical and reasonable. At this time, it is necessary to select two or more emergency lighting power sources.
When the emergency lighting power supply is independent of the power grid, two independent power supplies need to be drawn from the outside to ensure that when one channel fails, the other channel continues to work. The emergency lighting distribution system should be a self-contained system to ensure that in the event of a fire, the system can still supply power after removing the non-fire-fighting load. In this way, the power supply capacity and power supply time are not limited, and the conversion time can easily meet the requirements. But in the event of a major disaster, the reliability of its power supply could be undermined. Therefore, for large high-rise buildings and some particularly important buildings, it is not enough to use this method as an emergency lighting power source. At this time, it is necessary to use a generator set or a battery as a necessary supplement and reinforcement for the emergency lighting power supply.
The advantage of the generator set power supply method is that the power supply capacity and power supply time are basically unlimited. Backup lighting. When such locations are required, emergency lighting fixtures powered by battery packs should be used as transition lighting. High-rise buildings and some particularly important large buildings should use generator sets and batteries as emergency lighting power sources.

Application

The first application of emergency lighting is emergency lighting under non-fire conditions. As there is no fire in the environment at this time and the power supply of conventional lighting fails, the lighting suddenly stops. At this time, the environment suddenly becomes dark and some ongoing operations cannot be stopped suddenly so some processing needs to be done temporarily. For places where people are concentrated, the darkness is scary, and people need to evacuate as soon as possible. The place should be restored to a certain brightness as soon as possible, and obvious evacuation instructions are required, and normal lighting cannot continue to provide lighting for these places due to power failure. Therefore, another set of lamps must be designed and the power supply of this set of lamps must be independent and  additional to normal lighting power.
The second type of emergency lighting is emergency lighting in the event of a fire. Even if there is a fire in the environment at this time, the power supply of daily lighting is still in a normal power supply state, and daily lighting exists, but the existence of normal lighting is not necessarily conducive to fire fighting and evacuation, and will bring negative effects, which must be eliminated at this time. Power cords for other fire fighting equipment include power cords for normal lighting. After the normal lighting is cut off, another group of lighting needs to be set up for fire fighting operations and personnel evacuation. This group of lighting belongs to the fire-fighting load power supply, and its power supply is independent of the normal lighting power supply.

Importance

Emergency lighting is an important safety facility for modern public buildings and industrial buildings, and is closely related to personal safety and building safety. When the power supply is interrupted due to fire or other disasters in the building, emergency lighting plays an important role in personnel evacuation, fire rescue work, important production, continued operation of work or necessary operation disposal. Through the research and development, promotion and application of LED lighting application products, it is possible to change the current situation of the lack of integrated products of daily lighting and emergency lighting in Hong Kong, and the inability to meet production and living requirements in emergency situations; combined with the implementation of the national energy conservation and emission reduction goals, a series of civil emergency Semiconductor lighting products, in addition to meeting the energy-saving requirements in daily use, these lighting products provide sufficient illuminance and lighting time in emergency situations for escape, rescue of property and repair of power systems. Develop lighting products with their own power generation function in special emergency environments, so as to achieve the goal of being easy to carry and use, recyclable for multiple times, and having self-protection functions.