Emergency lighting is a very important element of Means of Escape from fire and
must be installed in accordance with the British Standard Specification BS 5266 :
Part 1 : 1999 - Code of Practice for Emergency Lighting. It is important that it is
installed by a trained engineer who is familiar with the British Standard.
There are basically two types of emergency lighting systems: Maintained and Non
maintained. In maintained systems, individual luminaries each incorporate a battery
that is charged from the mains lighting supply. For example, when the mains power
is fully restored following an interruption, the luminaries emergency lighting
battery is fully recharged from the mains power supply. In a non-maintained system
individual luminaries incorporate a power back up supply independent of the mains
supply. At present, maintained luminaries are only required in areas where the
lighting is dimmed e.g. cinemas and theatres etc.
