Emergency lighting in hotel bedroom

[Guest LynnW]

I recently stayed at a hotel which had non-maintainted emergency lights in the bedrooms with very bright green indicator LED's, so I complained. I didn't think emergency lighting was required in a hotel bedroom that had a window, and your website appears to confirm this. However, I was informed by the hotel staff that new legislation states that all rooms required emergency lighting.

Please can you confirm whether your website is correct or whether in fact there has been subequent legislation written.

[Safelincs]

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is the relevant legislation and "Article 14 (h) emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting", is the requirement for emergency lighting. The word requiring is the crunch word and it will be the fire risk assessor who will decide if emergency lighting is required. The DCLG guidance used is Sleeping accommodation and Section 5 Further guidance on emergency escape lighting, is the relevant section. The word borrowed lighting refers to artificial lighting outside and independent of the premises like street lighting. If there is sufficient illumination ( 1 to 2 Lux ) in the room with the curtains closed then emergency lighting may not be required.

[Guest Andy]

Hi there. is it a requirement to have emergency lighting in hotel rooms? If so are there any that you recommend that have a low LED beam? Thank you - Andy

[Tom Sutton]

There is a requirement, if necessary, and it is the fire risk assessment will decide, safelincs submission above explains it fully. The LED you speak of, is it an indicator on the unit or the luminaire itself.

[Guest Craig]

It is a strong beam of green light coming from the emergency lighting in the rooms

been given a lot of complaints from the customers sleeping in the hotel but very little solutions I can find to resolve this 

[AnthonyB]

No requirement for EL in hotel bedrooms, surprised you haven't just removed them. 

[Tom Sutton]

It may look like you are getting contradictory advice but it is how the RR(FS)O is interpreted.

The order says, where necessary in order to safeguard the safety of relevant persons, the responsible person must ensure that routes to emergency exits from premises and the exits themselves are kept clear at all times and the following requirement must be complied with in respect of premises where necessary.

Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting.

It is unlikely that a bedroom could be classed as an escape route but that would be up to the person conducting the FRA. I would suggest you check out article 14 to fully understand the situation.

[Guest Guest]

I have spent a sleepless night in a hotel bedroom with a bright illuminated emergency light , surely there is no reason or law to say it should be in a bedroom with a large window to the front ??

[AnthonyB]

No requirement at all, it's very odd that some chains are putting it in.

[Guest Neil]

I think the issue here is not whether emergency lighting is required, but whether the bright green indicator LED (which is a handy visual check that the battery is being charged) is required.   I am not an expert, and would welcome expert comment, but I would have thought the LED could be disconnected (or dimmed) provided routine checks are being made that the device is working as intended.  Those checks might be more onerous if the LED is disconnected, but not impossible.

[green-foam]

The LED must be visible at all times, how else would anyone know the EL fitting is being charged.

The fact is that companies that make EL fittings are just using brighter LED's for everything, there is at least one manufacturer who has added a "dimmer" to the green charging LED, hopefully it will catch on.

[AnthonyB]

It's a brave person that tampers with an electrical fitting and changes it from it's OEM specification and certification.

In theory you could try and justify this and have, for example, weekly testing instead of monthly, it's been successfully done for other fire related systems - but this was just altering the testing not the equipment.

 

[Guest emergency lighting]

Has anyone considered putting the battery/charger unit in the bathroom feeding the light remotely. That way the green LED would not be a problem.

[green-foam]

Yes, too expensive, and creates more problems than it would solve.

[Guest reception-worker]

adding to the conversation, as I'm getting guests asking about this.  the real "bother" is the light temperature/colour.  if they were red/green that would be fine, but many seem to be high-temperature, "blue" lights, not talking about tint per-say, but you know what they say about blue light and sleep.

UK law needs to amend for living spaces, with red lights.  people can maintain night vision with red light as well. In the event of (any emergency), if bright white/blue lights were suddenly turned off, night vision takes longer to adapt to the dark than eyes exposed to red light, read any good astronomer/night observer forum.

TL;DR;-  you can have it nice and bright but the law should allow red wavelength light, possibly enforce it for greater safety

[Guest TIGER]

The bright green light also caused headaches and strange visual sensations as well as sleep deprivation. I'm concerned that it could trigger a seizure for someone with epilepsy. When I complained to the manager, I was told it was the emergency light, but this blog states that it's the charger indicator. I suppose it's green to show that the charger is on, but it could still have less blue light in it and be much less bright. This needs to be reconsidered and an appropriate standard developed. 

[green-foam]

Not all green lights are the charge indicator, it could be an actual emergency light. You can get a "green LED"  that is infact an emergency light, in the event of a power cut it changes from green to brilliant white, I have posted pictures of one before, here on this forum. Also I would suggest that the general association of a blue light is that of the emergency services, so would anyone want to cause more problems by having a blue light instead of green, I think not.

[AnthonyB]

9 hours ago, Guest TIGER said:

The bright green light also caused headaches and strange visual sensations as well as sleep deprivation. I'm concerned that it could trigger a seizure for someone with epilepsy. When I complained to the manager, I was told it was the emergency light, but this blog states that it's the charger indicator. I suppose it's green to show that the charger is on, but it could still have less blue light in it and be much less bright. This needs to be reconsidered and an appropriate standard developed. 

There hasn't been and still isn't a requirement for emergency lighting in hotel bedrooms, it's bizarre that places have it fitted!