Converting standard luminaires for emergency use is common practise in the UK, more so than in Europe, but if the conversion is incorrectly carried out, the consequences can be far reaching and serious. Such conversions should be tested for compliance with appropriate regulations and standards, and ICEL - the emergency lighting arm of the Lighting Industry Association (LIA) – believes that the revised and newly launched ICEL 1004:2013 registration scheme provides clear guidelines on how to ensure safe and consistent engineering during modification. Guidance on LED conversions is now also included:
Throughout mainland Europe, it is normal practise to specify central emergency lighting systems and dedicated emergency luminaires, but this is not so in the UK where the conversion of standard mains, LED or low voltage luminaires to emergency is very common. There are advantages to this typical UK practise (mainly aesthetic), but such conversions have to be right. If poorly designed and made, possibly because of a demand for cost-cutting combined with badly conceived or open specifications, this can lead to a conversion that at best ignores the complexity of the host luminaire. At worst it can become dangerous and pose a clear risk to public safety in a building emergency, such as fire.
Safety with registration scheme:
To improve this situation, the Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting (ICEL) has introduced a registration scheme of competent companies able to ensure that mains luminaires are converted to emergency use according to best practise. The scheme also ensures that such luminaires are thoroughly tested after conversion. ICEL 1004 provides clear advice about emergency luminaire conversion and the legal obligations that converter and user should comply with. Since LEDs are being increasingly used for emergency lighting applications, the latest edition (ICEL 1004:2013), also covers LED luminaire conversion.
To ensure the safety of building occupants in the event of mains failure, fire or other emergency, emergency lighting products must work as required. Conversions carried out to ICEL 1004:2013 specifications will help ensure this. Unfortunately, there are still too many poor quality conversions being made, so ICEL promotes to all companies involved that they must fully understand the importance of compliance, particularly when manufacturing life safety products.
Poor conversions may not be reliable or provide the correct amount of light at the right time in an emergency. They may demand repeated expensive site visits by the installer concerned to correct faults. The luminaire could fail in both mains and emergency modes, quickly negating any initial cost advantages. Worse, a property might be damaged or people put at risk because the emergency lighting failed. In such cases, the specifier, installer or 'Responsible Person' within the user organisation might end up in court. Although manufacturers or third party conversion shops usually make the conversions - not the installer - there is still a responsibility on the installer and end-user to ensure that the work has been correctly carried out.
Says ICEL Technical Manager Bernard Pratley: "The emergency lighting conversions carried out by the registered members of ICEL are compliant because of the third party inspections of procedures and test results that are part of the registration to ICEL 1004:2013. These ensure that members continue to maintain their high standards of workmanship. It is now up to the conversion industry as a whole to step up to the plate and ensure that they put audited high quality and compliant life-saving emergency luminaires in offices and other premises. Joining ICEL and working to ICEL 1004:2013 is an excellent way of demonstrating this."
Making a safe conversion:
Even if the electrical contractor leaves conversion to the manufacturer or a third party conversion house, there is still a responsibility to ensure that the work has been carried out correctly. Firstly, components used in conversion must comply with safety and performance requirements as follows:
- Fluorescent lamp emergency lighting control modules - These should comply with BSEN 61347-2-1, BSEN 61347-2-3 and BSEN 61347-2-7 for safety, and BSEN 60925 for performance.
- LED emergency lighting - These should comply with BSEN 61347-2-1 and BSEN 61347-2-13 for safety, and BSEN 62384 for performance.
Whoever is commissioning the conversion work should ensure that they audit the work of the company carrying out the conversion work. ICEL members that are registered to the ICEL scheme would be able to demonstrate through their registration that they have good quality processes in place that would significantly reduce the level of auditing required.
CE marking validity:
If a standard CE-marked luminaire is altered in any significant way, and this would include emergency lighting conversions, the company making the alteration takes on the legal responsibility for the continuing compliance of the product with the relevant legislation. The original CE mark declarations and warranties largely become invalid or - at the very least - compromised.
When the luminaire arrives from the OEM or other commissioning company/user, it should, as a newly manufactured product, already meet the requirements of relevant directives, including the Low Voltage Directive (LVD) and the Electro Magnetic Compatibility Directive (EMCD). Because the conversion house will necessarily change wiring, move components and introduce new parts, the conversion house or a third party test house should carry out thermal, electrical safety and EMC tests. The successful test results enable the conversion house to apply its own CE-mark and manufacturer's mark, and compile a Technical Construction File to support the new conformity.
Unfortunately, this does not always happen and, as a result, many converted luminaires carry marking that relates to the original product rather than the converted product. This could lead to disputes in the case of performance failures as the complaints may be made against the original manufacturer, rather than the converter.
Testing for potential trouble:
If the added emergency control module is incompatible with the fitted control gear, problems are inevitable, so again testing is crucial. It is also essential that emergency lighting batteries are compatible with the control module, and be shown to have a design life of four years under normal operation within a luminaire or remote enclosure. All components must be installed and tested in accordance with the supplier's instructions.
Emergency lighting products should be manufactured using fire retardant components, and the enclosure must comply with BSEN 60598-2-22 and the 850oC glow wire test (unless components are mechanically secured and will not come into contact with a flammable surface). Many standard mains luminaires do not meet this requirement. Additionally, certain lighting controllers and prismatic diffusers will not pass the 850oC glow wire test.
Another issue is that multiple lamp luminaires, combined with smaller, more compact modern light sources, may lead to overheating. The performance and reliability of emergency modules and battery sets are highly sensitive to even slightly elevated temperatures, so the battery and charger will need housing within a remote fire retardant box. Warns ICEL consultant Chris Watts: "If the converter does not apply the correct testing procedure, it will not be known whether overheating is an issue or not."
The latest luminaire designs - with fittings becoming more compact (such as LED or T5 style luminaires), makes the management of temperature more critical as there is much less space available for the components, whilst the emergency inverters and batteries have remained a similar size. Therefore, a conversion is not just a case of 'shoehorning' the emergency components into the luminaire's housing - it is often necessary to rearrange existing components to cope, or use a remote box.
Unfortunately, re-arranging components may mean a greater likelihood of electrical problems if not carried out within a controlled manufacturing process. This is especially so when high frequency (HF) electronic ballasts are used, because ballast to lamp cable connections can act as aerials. The possible resulting radio interference (RFI) could invalidate the CE mark because the EMC Directive is no longer conformed to.
'Cheap and cheerful' is no good:
Full compliance with ICEL 1004:2013 can only be claimed by members of ICEL who are registered to this scheme. Full details of ICEL 1004:2013 can be downloaded free of charge from www.icel.co.uk. Membership of ICEL is through the Lighting Industry Association Ltd - details of membership and membership application forms are available for down loading from www.thelia.org.uk.
The picture shows an emergency lighting conversion being carried out by Poselco, a fully audited BSI commercial lighting workshop and ICEL member company, which has an appointed scope to re-engineer many standard mains luminaires as emergency lighting.
About ICEL:
ICEL (www.icel.co.uk) is a trade association that is the foremost UK authority on emergency lighting, and its members are manufacturers of components and products for emergency lighting fittings. ICEL's representatives serve on BSI and International Standards committees, developing harmonised product and application standards. Therefore, ICEL members are well placed to give advice on product selection and can be expected to provide good quality emergency lighting products.