A Holistic Approach To The Testing Of Emergency Lighting Can Help Save Lives
Major incidents where occupant safety was compromised has highlighted the importance of having fully integrated emergency lighting testing systems with robust reporting, writes Abtec Building Technologies Director Dave Watkins.
In the starkest, most brutal ways possible, the last few years have encouraged all of us to think more carefully about the safety of buildings. More than any other single event, the Grenfell Tower tragedy highlighted the dangers of not having a coherent approach to escape. Yet in the five years that have passed, we have come to realise this was not an isolated incident.
In the last 12 months, fires at mixed-use commercial and residential building on Whitechapel and Commercial Road in Aldgate highlights how much work still needs to be done in keeping building occupants safe. Responding to this London Fire Brigade said: “We would again urge all building owners and managers to take immediate action to ensure their tenants are safe and can live in their homes without fear.”1
Creating A Safer Future
The long-awaited Building Safety Act 2022 was passed into law last year. Whilst it could take 18 months to fully come into force, those in charge of high-risk buildings need to prepare for the impact it will have, particularly given there is a renewed emphasis on the performance of building management systems, including emergency lighting which is an important part of the system to evacuate.
Those in positions of accountability, particularly those responsible once the property is occupied, must deliver a safe passage for occupants out of the building by ensuring, and more crucially signifying, a clear escape route. Therefore, they must take a good look at their existing system and ask themselves whether it is truly fit for purpose, particularly in commercial and public buildings.
Emergency lighting is about more than the luminaires. Quite simply, building managers and operators must be sure they can control, monitor and test their emergency lighting systems with ease and confidence. Despite the size and scale of some installations, emergency lighting, and the testing of this vital system, is one of the more straightforward aspects to get right.
In the UK there are very clear regulations concerning the provision and testing of emergency lighting systems. Lighting that illuminates emergency routes and exits must be provided in all non-single-user public and private buildings, with a full discharge procedure to be carried out once a year – and more basic functional test to be undertaken at least once per month.
Despite the transparency of current legislation and supporting industry standards, such as BS EN 50172:2004/BS 5266-1:2016, it is widely known that regular testing of systems is sporadic at best. As a result, too many buildings remain ill-equipped with outdated systems and testing practices. This means they cannot be relied upon in the event of an incident, with safety being put at risk.
A system that is robust and fully compliant is essential. But so too is a configuration that allows end-users to make regular checks and ensure that it remains ‘fit for purpose’. Increasingly, the view is that this can only be achieved by having a unified network infrastructure that allows all devices to be monitored continuously, and any potential failures to be reported at the earliest possible opportunity.
Open Protocol Approach
It is for precisely these reasons that KNX has become so integral to many major construction projects today. Designed for a wide variety of commercial and domestic building automation applications, KNX allows systems including lighting, HVAC, security, AV and displays to be controlled and managed using the same open standard communications protocol. Technology manufacturers across the spectrum have adopted KNX since it began to become more widespread in the late 1990s. At a time when even major names in the lighting world are withdrawing support for their propriety systems – leaving thousands of customers with useless, unsupported technology – the case for an open, future-proofed system such as KNX has never been stronger.
A consistent baseline of capabilities means that KNX can bring a welcome new level of reassurance to a project. Moreover, for lighting specifically, it can provide users with greater flexibility and control over their emergency lighting systems – both viewed individually and within the context of overall building safety. For instance, individual groups can be monitored and controlled via the DALI (Digital Addressable Lighting Interface), while KNX/IP routers allow the lighting systems to be hooked up to the overall building lighting system in different operational ‘lines’. As well as enabling more highly detailed fault reporting, this approach also makes it considerably easier to expand or amend existing systems as requirements evolve.
Those who have made KNX the foundation of their building technology systems routinely report an increased sense of confidence among their technical staff and ‘regular’ employees. And although we all fervently hope that there will be no further building safety tragedies, these types of efficient and integrated system designs will provide the best opportunity for a positive outcome if the worst does ever happen.
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