You probably knew that. But did you know as well that emergency lighting is a legal requirement in almost every building? As the Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL) puts it, “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.” Failure to take all necessary measures, and follow all regulations, can have life-threatening consequences.
 

Consider what happened in 2017 at London’s Grenfell Tower, when a fire at the 24-story residential killed over 70 residents. A report published later that year revealed that over two thirds of the tower’s emergency lighting units had earlier failed a routine inspection, and cited “inadequate management,” “inadequate installation standards,” a “failure to acknowledge the importance of undertaking urgent remedial works,” and “lack of communication” between the West London tower’s managers and its residents. Management failed to carry out a proper risk assessment, putting residents “at continuous risk.” Lack of preventive action created fatal consequences.
 

The Grenfell Tower incident was a call to action, concentrating attention on the crucial issue of emergency lighting and stimulating changes to the regulatory base on both the local and international levels. The new regulations are supplementing long-standing measures like IEC 60598-2-22 Ed. 4.0 b:2014, which has been updated to include measurements and further guidance on photometric testing of lighting. The standard ensures safe use and stipulates tighter requirements relating to whether the charge indication correctly connects to the circuit.
 

In the UK, BS EN 1838:2013, instituted in 2013, stipulates luminosity requirements for emergency lighting and standby lighting systems in public places. Since the Grenfell Tower disaster, the necessity of complying with the standard has become that much more acute.

A portfolio that covers all key applications  

Building owners and lighting professionals both require integrated solutions: lighting fixtures that can perform well and deliver high-quality illumination that supports day-day tasks and can switch to – and function effectively in – emergency mode when required.
 

The Philips LED luminaire portfolio from Signify recognizes this demand, covering all relevant indoor applications – from office, to warehouse, to school, to industrial, to retail and beyond – with a wide variety of LED luminaires equipped with integrated emergency lighting modules. Office lighting fixtures such as Philips TrueLine or SlimBlend; the Maxos fusion trunking lighting system for both industrial and retail use; the latest high-bay innovation, GentleSpace gen3; or the GreenSpace Downlight for retail are among the standout products that Signify offers for those who take not only emergency light, but lighting in general, as seriously as it deserves.
 

Emergency lighting’s backbone

Philips TrustSight, Signify’s latest emergency driver, functions as a backbone for emergency lighting fixtures. Designed for point source and linear applications, it can be integrated with linear, panel, down- and spotlight, waterproof, and industrial luminaires. That means that all relevant indoor applications, from office, to warehouse, to school, to industry, to retail, can profit from luminaires equipped with integrated emergency lighting.
 

Here’s what makes TrustSight so valuable.

• Simplicity – TrustSight modules are easy to design and integrate into fixtures. That means that installing a lighting fixture with a built-in emergency module doesn’t need to burden you with complexity.  

• Compliance – TrustSight complies with the latest and most stringent regulations, like the IEC 60598-2-22 Ed. 4.0 b:2014 and BS EN 1838:2013 that we mentioned above.

• Flexibility – TrustSight is also ready to integrate into both new and existing fixtures, making the upgrade easier and hassle-free.

• Smart and future-ready – Philips TrustSight is compatible with the DALI protocol and is ready to connect to remote monitoring systems and software applications. It offers constant output power independent of LED load in an emergency operation as well as automatic battery recognition, not to mention a self-test function (on Pro and DALI). TrustSight also easily fits into connected ecosystems, enabling more effective control,  monitoring,  testing and reporting. Combining TrustSight DALI Gen3 with Xitanium SR drivers and associated components will give you an emergency installation that can be controlled, monitored, tested, and reported based on supported DALI commands (IEC62386-202).

• Reliable -TrustSight offers an automatic battery and wrong-wiring detection, and its battery pack has a duration of three hours. The driver has a 70,000-hour lifetime and is equipped with a charger that can handle different battery chemistries. It’s also a proven and tested solution for SELV or HV requirements: HV (45-300V), SELV (15-55 V).

New regulations have stimulated the appearance on the market of a number of new emergency lighting fixtures and modules. Given all the options out there, you need to choose the equipment that offers the right features, delivering spot-on performance when the situation requires. The best, most reliable bet is emergency lighting that fully integrates into a building lighting design, and that isn’t an unwieldy and possibly unreliable add-on. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.