Should emergency lights show a green or red light?

[Guest JulieAd]

On our emergency lighting we have some small red lights in them and some green on the others is this correct or should they be all one colour.

[Tom Sutton]

It sounds like some form of testing you should check it out with the maintenance engineer or the manufacturer.

[green-foam]

Hello Julie, it really depends on the make of the emergency light as to what colour the LED should be. Originally they were red but in recent years they have changed to using a green LED.

There are some emergency lights with an "auto self test" feature, most of these have two LED's one green and one red, IF you have these normally you should just see the green LED on constantly, the red LED is to indicate fault conditions, it does this by flashing various sequences.

I strongly suspect that you have a mixture of old and new emergency lights, none with the self test feature.

However, just because the "little light is on" does not mean the unit will function correctly when required. The emergency lights should be tested once a month, AND once a year they should all be tested for 3 hours, any lights that are not on 3 hours after the test started will require attention / replacement.

[green-foam]

To add to the above. You do not see many emergency lights with a RED led, but I did see one.

And below is the more common emergency light with a green LED

[Guest BennyMurp]

Does the green light indicating the batteries are charging have to stay on 24/7 or can a unit be used where this light switches off when the batteries are charged? Query then on how to identify emergency lighting

[green-foam]

Emergency lights are designed to constantly trickle charge the standby batteries so the "charging light" will always be on.

If as you ask could the light not turn off when the batteries are charged, I would have to say (Not wishing to be pedantic about it) Suppose when the batteries are 100% charged the "charging indication light" switches off, at what point would they start charging again? 75% or 50% or 25%

No matter what the % of under 100% is, the light can not last the minimum 3 hours duration unless the battery is fully charged.

Also if the charging light was not on, how would you know if the unit was charged or being charged?

[Guest PeterP]

We have an emergency light in our premises with a code: SEC/M3/8F. the diode on this unit is now red in colour, does this require an electrician to fix or can this be done by a layman?

[green-foam]

What was the colour of the LED before you noticed it is red?

Do you have any other fittings with "SEC/M3/8F" on them, if so what colour are their LED's

I have no idea what "SEC/M3/8F" is, and google shows nothing, does the light have anything else on it?

[Tom Sutton]

It sounds like the company is SEC Lighting (http://www.sec.sk/uk ) the M3 will be a 3 hours maintained system, the 8F could be the power/type. It also looks like it is self test system and the red LED indicates the tube is faulty so it needs changing and providing its a competent layman I cannot see any reason why it needs a service engineer but I would check this out with the manufacturer.

Check out http://www.sec.sk/files/product/product_25_6574_evolux-led+8w-stena.pdf for auto self test mode.

[AnthonyB]

Don't fall for the con trick some sites have of having to replace all fittings just because they are older ones with the red LED light and you 'must' have the green light.

Self testing fittings (unless part of a central addressable system or similar) have at least two (red/green) or three (red/amber/green) LEDs, not one, the light combination giving you a status report.

[Guest]

On my site they change colour to Red from Green. And when they change to red they will not switch over when testing the EM lights.

600X600 light fittings. Maybe youre having the same problem as I am

[Tom Sutton]

You need to identify the manufacturer of the unit and get the data sheet which should tell you what the sequence of LED's mean. It appears Peters unit is a SEC fluorescence self test unit and uses three LED's green,yellow and red, the red one indicates the tube is faulty. Check out  http://www.sec.sk/files/product/product_25_6574_evolux-led+8w-stena.pdf

Edited August 23, 2015 by Tom Sutton

[Guest Bob Wilson]

Can  I please ask a question to the group?

We have some units that have one light that is green when functioning and red when not. It is not a self test unit as it has a manual test button. The problem is that the light is not displayed on the bezel but is in fact mounted on the back, with the driver.

Is that legal for use? 

 

[Tom Sutton]

All that I can find, is part of the annual test BS EN 50172:2004 BS 5266-8:2004 states "the supply of the normal lighting shall be restored and any indicator lamp or device checked to ensure that it is showing that normal supply has been restored" so without checking the LED how do you know if the supply has been restored? I also checked BS EN 60598-1 which does not appear to require LED's but you need to see the LED to complete the annual service test, don't understand it. Conforming to the BS is not a  legal obligation but it is best practice, I must leave it at that for the moment but I will continue with my research.

[green-foam]

I wonder how old the lights are? and if they are more than 3 years when were the batteries in them changed? If the fittings are old, and need new batteries, it may be worth considering new fittings, safelincs can supply them for £13.67 each Click here

[Guest Amber]

Red lights means it is in battery charging. Green means it is external power supplying. Some times it could be orange. That means something wrong with it.

[AnthonyB]

12 hours ago, Guest Amber said:

Red lights means it is in battery charging. Green means it is external power supplying. Some times it could be orange. That means something wrong with it.

This does not apply to most emergency light fittings which simply have a green charging light (or red if older).

Multi colour LEDS are only used on self testing fittings and even then there is no standardisation as to the meaning of the colours & flashes - you should check with the manufacturer's literature.

[Guest Hunter]

I have several 4 lamp fixtures that appear to have 2 ballasts in each.  It looks like they are "emergency lights" but none of the center lamps are lit on either of them.  I swapped lamps and checked voltage.  They are not getting any power.  It doesn't seem likely that all three have bad ballasts so is there something with these emergency lights that would prevent those two lamps to be lit on each fixture?

[Guest Jase]

When I push the button to test the exit light, on some the red light goes on and starts blinking, some for hours some all day, what does that mean?

[green-foam]

I would say it depends on the make / model of the light as to what any LED configuration means, so regretfully unless you give further information .........................

[Tom Sutton]

On 5/25/2016 at 7:44 PM, Guest Hunter said:

I have several 4 lamp fixtures that appear to have 2 ballasts in each.  It looks like they are "emergency lights" but none of the center lamps are lit on either of them.  I swapped lamps and checked voltage.  They are not getting any power.  It doesn't seem likely that all three have bad ballasts so is there something with these emergency lights that would prevent those two lamps to be lit on each fixture?

Sorry to Hunter, this has been missed and I am not a sparky but people with similar problems needs to understand there are two types of emergency lighting, maintained, which remain on with the normal lighting or non-maintained which remain off, until the normal lighting lose its supply. In this situation it could be non-maintained and there would be no supply to the emergency lighting until the normal supply is isolated.

Also the premises may have standby lighting which will not have a supply until the generator is started up.

[Guest SBM_BS]

Am interested in the obligations for having the green LED on.  I work at a Children's home where our recently built residential facilities have designed emergency routes out through the children's bedroom so the lighting in the rooms includes a green LED.  This is causing disturbed sleep and we are unclear if we are able to apply any reasonable or practical adjustments.  Any help will be gratefully received.  Thank you.

[Tom Sutton]

You need to find out what the green LED indicates, it is most likely a self contained luminaire and indicates that the battery is charging. Without this LED you would not know if the battery was being charged and if the supply failed, it could be a month before you found out that the battery had discharged, rendering you escape lighting ineffective.

Consequently it is a very important indicator warning LED which ensures the emergency lighting system is functioning correctly and as far as I am aware there is little or no modifications can be done.

[AnthonyB]

If this had been thought of in the design stage then either traditional central battery or addressable LED emergency lighting systems could have been specified - with these individual fittings are powered centrally so there would be no LED in the fitting to cause disruption.

As you are stuck with self contained fittings you may need to consider replacement with different fittings where the LED is placed to be less intrusive - with some I see it's quite hard to see the LED

[Guest Coz1984]

I have 5 x 8w maintained emergency fluorescent fittings all from 1995 to 97 never changed the batteries In any of them all have red led Indicators and all last 4 and half hours, 24/7 use for 20 years apart from tubes and starters as they are all used for normal use. Not bad batteries I'd say ? I ain't looking for candles in the dark ?