Where it's required.
"Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting."Article 14(2)(h), Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
BS 5266-1 translates that duty into coverage. The fire risk assessment confirms the premises-specific extent, but the standard expects luminaires at the points where escape fails in darkness:
- Every exit door and final exit, and the routes to them; changes of direction and corridor intersections.
- Stairs — each flight receiving direct light — and changes of floor level.
- Illuminated escape signage (maintained or externally lit to BS ISO 7010 designs).
- Open areas over 60m² (anti-panic lighting), windowless rooms and internal corridors.
- High-risk task areas where a process must be shut down safely.
- Plant rooms, lift cars, toilets over 8m² or without borrowed light, and firefighting equipment, call points and first aid points.
In small, simple premises with short, straight, borrowed-light escape routes, the assessment may justify limited provision; in sleeping-risk premises — hotels, larger HMOs, blocks of flats — full escape route coverage is the enforced norm, because escape happens at night by definition.
Design and duration choices.
| Parameter | Options | Standard practice |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 1 hour or 3 hours | 3 hours wherever premises are not evacuated immediately or may be reoccupied quickly — the default specification; sleeping premises always 3 hours |
| Mode | Maintained (lit at all times) / non-maintained (lights on mains failure) | Non-maintained in workplaces; maintained for exit signs and in premises open to the public in darkness (venues, cinemas, licensed premises) |
| Illuminance | Per BS 5266-1 / BS EN 1838 | Minimum 1 lux along the centre line of escape routes; 0.5 lux in open-area cores; higher at high-risk tasks |
| Architecture | Self-contained luminaires / central battery | Self-contained dominates small and medium premises; central battery in larger estates for maintainability |
Testing: the regime that gets checked.
- Monthly function test: simulate mains failure briefly (key switch), confirm every luminaire and sign operates, record results and defects in the log book.
- Annual full-duration test: run the system for its rated duration (typically 3 hours), verify output at the end, recharge, and certify — scheduled for low-occupancy periods since batteries are depleted afterwards.
- Completion and periodic certificates: installation to BS 5266-1 evidenced at handover; periodic inspection certificates retained with the fire safety records.
These records are precisely what a fire risk assessor, an auditing officer and an insurer each ask to see — untested emergency lighting is one of the most common findings in office and residential assessments, and one of the cheapest to fix: the failure is administrative before it is electrical.