Emergency Lights In Entertainment Venues

[jasper]

Just wondered what your guys opinions were relating to medium/large places of assembly and emergency lighting; I have had problems recommending this as many venues like the ambient light to be low, I have been thinking about the connection between non-maintained lights and the fire alarm, so wondered what you fellas experience of this was?

[AnthonyB]

Most existing places i've seen use maintained exit boxes & non maintained escape lighting or if following the codes fully the emergency lighting is maintained.

If you wanted emergency lighting upon fire as oppose to just power failure I suppose you could use sustained or normal fittings with inverter packs with the normal lighting switch on a fire alarm relay, but most places wanting lights on for evac just link in the house lighting circuit to the alarm and leave the emergency fittings seperately

[wee brian]

In most assembly buildings the exits should always be visible, not just when there is a fire.

There are other resons, other than fire, to evacuate a building in a hurry.

[jasper]

how can I get away from keeping the lights off (except illuminated exit signs)? am I correct in thinking that all lights should be on when occupied at night? as I have a venue who refuse to turn them on as artists demand near on total darkness

[kurnal]

Jasper
This may be complete tosh and I haven't time to verify it at the mo, but it may be food for thought.

If I recall there used to be a different standard for cinemas and this allowed for illuminated exit signs at all times and for maintained lighting at 10%  of the standard levels during the film performance. It recognised the fact that in a darkened auditorium the audiences eyes have time to  become accustomed to lower light levels and therefore can cope wth a lower lighting level.

I think that historic  standard applied only to cinemas but I supose that you could perhaps make a case starting from the premise that if its acceptable to suddenly drop from say 300 lux to 1 lux on failure of the mains supply, when your eyes will have to become suddenly accustomed to a  huge reduction in light levels, it may be possible to accept a lower level of maintained lighting in a darkened auditorium?

This arrangement would not cope with even low levels of smoke obsuring the routes though so maybe it  would need interfaces between house lights or the full lighting package and the fire alarm system.

[jasper]

Thanks for the reply Kurnal, it has been quite a difficult subject for me for a number of years to be honest and I am not sure which way to go on it.
The thing is as you stated that once the audiences eyes become accustomed to that low a lux level then full em ltg would be startling

[ST1878]

Jasper
The venue that refuses to turn them on may find themselves on the wrong side or the RRO, as it is down to the 'Responsible Person' for the venue to determine what is suitable and adequate within the premises Fire Risk Assessment, NOT ANY OF THE PERFORMERS!!

[nearlythere]

I seem to recall in an edition of a BS5266 that you could have total darkness if you had someone standing by at a lighting control point to switch on the illumination in the event of an emergency.