What are non-maintained emergency light & Are they good?

Public and private buildings across the world legally require an emergency lighting system in place. Broadly speaking, there are two choices to install an emergency lighting system: upgrade the conventional lighting system in the building to also serve as an emergency lighting system or install a dedicated system for emergency light.

Non-maintained emergency lighting system: The non-maintained lighting system is a standalone emergency lighting system that illuminates ONLY when the main power supply in the building goes off. During normal power supply, these remain shut.

Maintained emergency lighting system: The maintained lighting system is a system that can work on the regular power supply and switch to backup mode at the event of a power outage. It can be operated as regular lights as well as emergency lights.

Difference between non-maintained & maintained emergency lights

The sole purpose of the non-maintained emergency light is to work as an emergency backup light during a power cut. So, at other times, the light remains switched off.

For the occupants who are unaware of the building layout, these lights illuminate the path to quick evacuation.

You can generally observe these lights at the escape route like stairway, corridor, hallway and exit door.

Maintained emergency light ordinarily takes power from the mains supply and immediately switched to backup power at the power failure. The 2-in-1 feature of maintained emergency light provides continuous illumination without any obstruction.

Unlike non-maintained emergency lights, it can be used as a day-to-day lighting system. It can be generally found in Theaters, Cinemas, Supermarket, Subway station, Shopping centers, and other buildings.

Non-maintained v/s maintained emergency light – which is better?

Usability: If you are installing an emergency light system purely for an escape route, then you don’t need a maintained lighting system. The simple non-maintained lighting system is adequate for such settings.

For a day-to-day standard light with backup power, maintained emergency light is a better choice than non-maintained emergency light.

Space: The maintained emergency light system comes with fewer components than the non-maintained emergency light system. So, it is more adaptable in any part of the building.

Maintenance: Since non-maintained lights will be working only in an emergency, people tend to forget about these lights. So, if the lights get damaged, it may go unnoticed. So, it needs a frequent routine check for proper use.

Comparatively maintained emergency light has less fitting and wiring, so it is more comfortable to test and take less time for maintenance.

Expenditure: Maintained lighting is cheaper when installing lights in the building. As it will work on both premises of regular and emergency use, you don’t need to invest in two dedicated lines for the power outage. You can use maintained emergency light for all of the standard or backup light system.

Is it possible to convert normal lights to maintained emergency light?

Of course! All you need is to add emergency conversion kits to your existing lighting fittings. The conversion kit will create a fully functional, maintained emergency light system. Unlike installing dedicated emergency lights, adding a conversion kit is far cheaper and more space-efficient.

An emergency conversion kit comprises of battery packs, inverter and a driver that regulates the use of light – during and after main power go off. Along with these, you can add in more accessories to it like indicators, self-test drivers, and remote testing switches to these conversion kits.

When the main power goes off, the inverter is specially designed to switch your lighting to emergency backup mode. Besides this, it can automatically charge and discharge the battery. It can convert AC/DC in both ways.

Can I convert my existing non-maintained emergency lights into maintained?

Yes, it can be. All it takes is changing the way current is passed on to the mains and some additional components that will regulate the driver and provide it with commands on when to switch to the mains and when to switch to the batteries. Sanforce is a leader in this sector and if you are looking to convert one of these types into other, let us know. We will supply you the technological know-how along with the materials required.

If you want to buy emergency light conversion kits in bulk, Sanforce manufactures and supplies world-class quality controlled and certified products all around the world. You can choose various emergency conversion kits and other emergency light accessories.