Gary Fisher of Lougar Electrical puts Tridonic’s new EM ready2apply emergency light to the test on a recent office refurbishment.
Emergency lighting is now becoming a much bigger issue in the majority of properties that we electricians are required to maintain. Safety is of upmost importance. We only need to look at what happened with the Grenfell Tower tragedy to understand why occupant protection is at the top of the agenda.
When starting a project, especially one that involves commercial or industrial buildings, it’s always worth getting a firm in to carry out a specification or to do it yourself with confidence.
So let’s hypothetically say that we’re working in an office environment, with emergency lighting to be considered.
In days gone by my preference would have been to use the bulkhead type, 8W tube, either maintained or non-maintained (whatever suited the situation), or purchase lights that incorporate the emergency battery part as a whole unit.
The latter method clearly comes at a bigger cost, material wise, than purchasing a separate unit, hence using the standard emergency light fitting; a little more wiring but easier in the long term.
The main problem I’ve found with these is that they tend to look, for want of a better word, unsightly. Very clumsily located on the ceiling area and over the exit doorways, so not a good look!
A prime example is my local pub. It had a complete refit but the 4 x emergency bulkhead tube lights stand out like a sore thumb amongst the smart LED recess lighting – ugly to say the least.
These days there are companies out there with different ideas and designs to make these once unsightly, yet essential, items look the part. Let’s face it you don’t want fancy lighting systems being spoilt by a terrible looking emergency light fitted on the ceiling, and with most good lighting designs, the emergency part will in most cases be independent.
Tridonic is one such company that is looking to advance this area of lighting with its extremely smart looking recess emergency light. Having had the opportunity to install some of these recently I can highly recommend this company for your emergency lighting requirements.
I was undertaking a lighting upgrade of an office area, within a local printing company (Murrays, a Printers based in Milton Keynes), and thought this would be the perfect chance to get the emergency lighting also upgraded using the company’s latest fittings.
Ten was the amount I was given to play with, and ten I installed in numerous areas around the office space.
The main part of the job required me to take out the existing 600×600 4x tube modular recess lights incorporating a Cat 2 diffuser and replace them with new LED panel light fittings – basically a one-for-one job.
This project was initially started due to tubes not working to their maximum and suffering from that horrible look when only half a fitting is lit. This creates a maintenance issue where someone has to replace the fitting – either a staff member or an outside contractor, but in some cases the existing fittings are the emergency type.
If you’ve ever had the pleasure of replacing one of these emergency types then you’ll know that these are considerably more expensive, hence wiring a separate emergency light.
Going back to the original thread, while replacing the lights I used the opportunity to wire or alter the wiring accordingly to use the new Tridonic emergency lights, keeping these completely separate from the LED panels.
The type I used was Tridonic’s EM ready2apply Basic 1-2W. This is the standard type, but the company also offers Self-Test and Pro 2W versions as well. They look just like a small recess light in the ceiling and don’t stand out amongst the other fittings.
The battery was no issue as this simply connected to the main body of the fitting by pushing into the slot, like a lightning connection when charging your devices, and held in place by a push through clip.
The ready2apply device comes with a five-year guarantee for the LED head and a three-year guarantee for the Lithium battery. You can also have the option of maintained and non-maintained with one or three hour duration time, just like any emergency light.
There is also the cover range of the fittings. These units come with three lens covers, which inter-change, giving the desired light distribution and range according to the location area, i.e. wide angle, confined or escape route.
When it comes to testing, with the standard type it’s a case of isolating the circuit or, where possible, activating a key switch or similar. On the other types there is a function for this located to the side rim area of the unit, where you insert a small pin to activate a function test.
The product was incredibly easy to install as well. All you do is drill a recess hole with a diameter of 40-43mm, and in the same way as any recess light is carried out you push the whole fitment up into the ceiling area.
I need to mention at this point that the 230V power lead obviously needs to be terminated to the wiring. The units I used were 2 lead type, no earth (cpc) was required, and this I did using a conventional junction box located above in the void. If you don’t have a void, then because the hole diameter is small, you might want to consider Wago product or similar, so you can push the connections through and up. I found this process to be very easy as I had ceiling tiles with a void above, so cabling and connection was also simple.
If I was to have one gripe then it would be that there could be more power lead on offer, as this is only about 300mm in length. Twice as much lead would make carrying out the wiring connection a much easier task.
While talking about making of the mains connection, it would be another good idea maybe to make this connection directly into the light fitting, very much like a recess light, tool free?
That aside, I found the light output was fabulous and gave more than enough light to see clearly where to find the escape. Don’t forget that these are mainly used to show the way in the event of an emergency, but they’re still very bright considering the size of the fitting. Very impressive indeed!
For more information about the Tridonic EM ready2apply emergency light visit: www.tridonic.com