Emergency Lighting maintained or non-maintained

[Alex H]

IS it necessary to use maintained ELs in an office environment for the fire exit signs and lights?

Thanks

Alex

-- Alex Harris Remove NEWS to reply

[Chris Oates]

Maintained is bit like having an emergency generator to keep lights running at all times. At work we use plenty of non maintained with fire brigade and H&S approval

[Lurch]

I've alway's been fed conflicting information on this one from the niceic, fire officers and anyone else who has an opinion on the matter!

Usually when I've been installing them in theatres, studios and the like they are non-maintained with a seperate switch so as to be able switch them on when required. If you are fitting them in an area where they could become annoying, e.g. boardroom where projectors are used, this method would be used.

In offices I tend to go for combined emergency fittings with the existing lighting in the room area. If this is not feasible then stand alone non-maintained in the work area would suffice. Some people would fit maintained but they don't always add to the quality of light when working, e.g. mix of colours, brightness with existing lighting.

For the exit signs I would use maintained luminaires, in the event of a fire they are instantly viewable.With non-maintained exit signs the local lighting circuit would have to 'trip' off in order for them to illuminate and this isn't always the case.

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[BigWallop]

Exit and direction signs should be continually lit, even during mains failure, so should always be maintained configuration.