LED Emergency Lights

What are Emergency Lights?

LED emergency lights include a battery backup component. This allows them to keep providing illumination in the event of a power failure or blackout. Emergency lights provide at least 90 minutes of light in these situations - enough time to safely evacuate a building.

Emergency backup lighting regulations include:

1. The Australian Standard AS2293 - Emergency escape lighting and exit signs for buildings.
2. The Building Code of Australia (BCA) Section E4.2 Emergency lighting requirements.

Fire Safety Audits & Upgrading to LED

Emergency lights are an essential part of the lighting in most buildings. They are found throughout commercial, office, retail, residential strata, and public buildings.

Emergency light fittings are inspected by fire safety companies to ensure they are working. Any non-working lights get flagged as defective and need to be upgraded or repaired. Around the time of these fire safety audits is an ideal time to upgrade to LED.

What most people don't realise is that you do not need to use the fire safety company's proposed light fittings. In fact, the fittings quoted in fire safety audits are often low-quality and over-priced. Any licensed electrician can install a compliant LED emergency backup light fitting.  

Types of Emergency Lights

There are three main types of LED emergency lights:

Maintained. Maintained lights are on all the time and simply switch to battery operation when the power fails. Examples include LED EXIT lights,  Chamaeleon Eco, and Vico LED Batten. These lights are often used in emergency stairwells and car parks. Note: some 'maintained lights' can still be operated by a light switch if they do not need to be on all the time. See the installation instructions on our product pages for details.

Non-Maintained. Non-maintained lights are an 'emergency only' lighting source. In other words, they only switch on when there is a power outage. Examples include LED spitfires (in offices) and emergency floodlights (in warehouses).

Sustained. Sustained lights use a separate light source when in emergency mode. For example, some fluorescent batten lights used in fire stairs have a tiny LED chip at one end of the fitting.

How to spot an emergency backup light

Emergency lights have a red indicator light on them, as well as a 'test' button. Knowing this will help you identify which lights have the battery back-up component built-in.

For example, in car parks, only about one in every four light fittings are of the emergency type. In fire escapes, every light (or at least every second fitting), tends to be an emergency unit.

See also: batten lights, and LED panel lights.

View all LED Emergency Lights.