- Author
- Webber, G. M. B.
- Title
- Emergency Lighting Recommendations.
- Coporate
- Fire Research Station, Borehamwood, England
- Book or Conf
- National Institute of Building Sciences. International Conference on Building Use and Safety Technology. March 12-14, 1985, Los Angeles, CA, 61-74 p., 1985
- Keywords
- emergencies | exit signs
- Identifiers
- emergency lighting
- Abstract
- A Building Research Establishment survey of literature has shown some lack of harmony between national standards for both emergency lighting and characteristics of exit signs. For example, the UK recommendation for a 0.2 lux absolute minimum at any point on the centre line of the floor of any escape route is about a fiftieth of the USA recommendation of about 11 lux or over. Another comparison for the sizes of exit signs shows that at equal viewing distances, the visulal angle of the strokes of the letters of UK signs vary from about a half to two-thirds the size of the recommended USA sign. It is concluded that relatively little direct research exists to form the basis from which recommendations derive and that a more basic understanding of the requirements for emergency lighting may prove advantageous to more effective design. As a first step an analysis of some reported findings in clear and smoke conditions in terms of the CIE 19/2 analytical model shows this model capable of describing the general visual principles involved.