EMERGENCY LIGHTING – (EN 1838:2024 & BS EN 1838:2024)

The revised emergency lighting standard, EN 1838:2024 on Emergency Escape Lighting Systems was prepared by the CEN committee, ‘TC169/WG3 – Emergency lighting in buildings’ being approved and then published in the UK as BS EN 1838:2024, by BSI, on the 31^st of December 2024.

This new standard specifies the luminous requirements for emergency lighting systems, including adaptive emergency escape lighting systems, electric emergency lighting, installed in premises or locations where such systems are required or needed, and which are principally applicable to locations where the public or workers have access.

It supersedes the previous standard of 2013 including all amendments and corrigenda, where appropriate, and it should be noted that the latest date by which national conflicting standards be withdrawn is by June of 2027.

This new standard contains a number of significant technical changes to that of the previous 2013 standard, with the requirements for emergency escape route lighting having been amended to cover the width of the escape route, and greater detail has been included for the requirements for emergency lighting at the points of emphasis and specific areas of hazard.

This new standard of EN 1838:2024 is to be read in conjunction with EN 50172:2024.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standard organisations of all of the 27 member countries European Union, as well as those of Iceland, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom are bound to implement this European Standard.

Emergency lighting for buildings is provided for use when the supply to the normal lighting fails and is therefore required to be powered from a source independent of that supplying the normal mains lighting and may also provide lighting for both safety and operational tasks.

The scope of this new standard is to specify the luminous requirements for emergency lighting systems including that of adaptive emergency escape lighting systems, installed in premises or locations where such systems are required or needed, and which are principally applicable to locations where the public or workers have access. This document does not apply to road tunnel emergency lighting.

For the purposes of the standards EN1838:2024, emergency lighting is regarded as a generic term of which there are a number of specific forms of emergency lighting, that being ‘escape route lighting’, ‘open area (anti-panic) lighting’, ‘high-risk task area lighting’, ‘local area lighting’ and ‘Standby lighting’, as well as ‘Safety Signs’.

Escape route lighting is to ensure that the escape route can be effectively identified and safely used when the location is occupied.

Open area (Anti-Panic) lighting is to avoid panic and provide illumination allowing people to reach a place where an escape route can be identified.

High-risk task area lighting is to provide illumination for the safety of people involved in a potentially dangerous process or situation and to enable proper shutdown procedures for the safety of the operator and other occupants of the building.

Local area lighting is to provide illumination for people allowed to remain temporarily in a premises during mains supply failure if it is risk assessed for the activities that are allowed to be performed.

Standby lighting is provided to enable normal activities to continue substantially unchanged.

Safety signs give a general safety message obtained by a combination of colour and geometric shape and which, by the addition of a graphical symbol, gives a particular safety message.

Adaptive emergency escape lighting (AEEL) is a technique that can be used as a supplement to emergency escape lighting and, when applied to escape routes in addition to emergency escape lighting, can enhance their effectiveness in an emergency, and these techniques are included in CEN/TS 17951, and if the premises operator needs to be able to redirect occupants away from specific emergency escape routes, then an adaptive emergency escape lighting system (AEELS) can be used.

It is stated here, that this editorial on EN 1838:2024 and that of the previous editorial on EN 50172:2024 provide only a superficial overview of the new standards on emergency lighting, and as such, all persons looking to consider the installation or refurbishment of an emergency lighting system, must consult the published standards from BSI, to gain complete clarification and a full understanding of the specific details contained within the documents, which are a mandatory requirement within applicable buildings.