Australia Emergency light testing and standard: AS 2293
As many emergency light manufacturers know, emergency lights exported to Australian market have to comply with safety requirements: AS/NZS 60598.2.22. But few understand there are operational safety requirements according to AS 2293. Actually AS/NZS 60598.2.22 has clearly established that, emergency escape lighting and exit signs need to comply with both AS/NZS 60598.2.22 and AS 2293.3. AS 2293 is a serial standard with 2293.1: System design, installation, operation, and 2293.3: Emergency escape luminaires and exit signs. For testing labs, we mainly refer to test methods and requirements in AS 2293.3, below we will introduce you in details about AS 2293.3.
Standard AS/NZS 60598.2.22 required that,
22.16 Functional safety
Function safety and photometric shall be in accordance with the relevant sections of AS 2293.3.
So, what are the exact requirements in AS 2293.3 for emergency light? Please read on…
Usually we divide emergency light into two types; one is emergency exit sign light, the other is non-emergency exit sign light. Below example is emergency exit sign light.
What is a qualified emergency light? First, we analyze through its function. First of all, emergency light do not need to work in normal times. But when accident occurs causing power off, the emergency light should work in a dark case. In other words, emergency lights work when other lighting fixtures are not working. Its lighting function creates conditions to disperse the crowd. People may consider that, if the emergency breaks down at a critical moment, for example, it doesn’t work or has not enough brightness, this will bring great effects to human safety and property. For this reason, AS 2293 has more functional safety requirement. Next, we analyze the main requirements of the standard.
· Emergency Lighting Products Installation Height Classification: this classification is different with the one we mention above, we classify base on a certain data calculated according to products’ light intensity and beam angle. As we all know, brighter light has a larger area of illumination. On the basis of the relationship between light intensity and beam angle, we use Spot Goniophotometer to test the light intensity and beam angle. Then calculate again according to the formula in appendix C of AS 2293.3. Using the calculated results, we determine the maximum installation height in Table 5.1-5.5 of AS2293.1. The description of the maximum installation height should also be mentioned on instruction manual. The calculation formula is more used here, and the calculation process is relatively complicated.
· Standard also requires the maximum delay of illumination at switch on, which can avoid crowd panic when power outages. Emergency escape luminaires shall provide a light output at least 10% of the reference value within 1s of energization and 80% of the reference value within 15s of energization. Of course, the product needs to be pretreated before conducting test.
· For emergency exit sign light, there are requirements for its edge, background, chromaticity coordinates, luminance contrast of each area and size. In general, although the content and requirements in this chapter are large, as long as the product is designed in correspondence with the pattern that standard requires, it shall meet requirements. After all, this product is still relatively mature, and standards are also written and designed based on the product.
· Batteries charge and discharge. Each design/type of self-contained emergency escape luminaire and exit sign shall be subjected to a high temperature test and a low temperature test. Here we mainly consider whether the product discharge time is sufficient or not. If discharge time is too short, emergency light may stop glowing while the crowd is not completely evacuated. Batteries charge and discharge test at high temperature shall be conducted in a test condition of ambient temperature 40°C±2°C. First battery charge is 72h, while for second and third charge are both 16h. The battery needs to be discharged after each charge, requiring each discharge time should be greater than or equal to 2h. Batteries charge and discharge test at low temperature is conducted in an ambient temperature 10±2°C condition. Every battery charge is 16h, 3 times, and it needs to be discharge greater than or equal to 2h.
From the above several testing points, there aren’t many large testing projects under test standard AS 2293.3. But each test is more complex and difficult. So far our Waltek Testing Group has already conducted a very large number of such projects. In early 2017 we also got the CNAS accreditation of AS 2293. Our test reports are accepted by Australian government, testing capabilities and quality are also recognized by CHINA NATIONAL ACCREDITATION BOARD FOR LABORATORIES (CNAL).
For now in emergency light testing market, some laboratories which have no testing qualification but provide such testing services, testing quality is not being guaranteed. Here kindly appeal to all emergency light manufacturers to pay attention about it.
After conducting a large number of emergency light testing, we found that the quality of emergency lighting products is still relatively good. But problems still exist, for example, numerous products cannot meet the standard requirements in battery discharge. The main reason is that the battery cannot meet the Australian standards for emergency light. Therefore, we sincerely suggest emergency light manufacturers to pay more attention to the battery parameters while purchasing one, and to communicate smoothly with battery supplier to solve the problem in advance.
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