Emergency Lights

[RF Lighting]

Back in the olden days when I was just a boy emergency lights used to have red LEDs to indicate they were charging. These days they are always green.

Does anyone know when and why they changed colour?



I came across this fitting the other day in a scout hut, and it passed the test, whilst some of the newer fittings failed to light at all, never mind stay on.

 

[SUNRAY]

I seem to remember something about different colours for Maintained & Non Maintained but even that doesn't seem to match up.

Perhaps Green = good now

 

[RF Lighting]

That’s all I could really think of.

Also why are the green indicators so bright these days? They often light a whole room and look awful at night time especially.

 

[SUNRAY]

That’s all I could really think of.

Also why are the green indicators so bright these days? They often light a whole room and look awful at night time especially.

I agree they are stupidly bright now, to the point it's impossible to have a blackout in a theatre. Even worse is they often seem dazzle as I approach the door in a dimly lit room.

 

[RF Lighting]

I’ve coloured the majority in with a black sharpie at a building I look after. They are still bright enough to provide an indication, but don’t actually light the room any more.

I had to fit a 10KΩ resistor in line with some emergency downlighter fittings green indicators as it lit the room so brightly it made the building look like a haunted house on a night!!
I noticed on the most recent one I installed it now comes with a dimmer switch built in to control how bright the green light is.

 

[SUNRAY]

I find many of them are built into the lens area now and less easy to adjust. The idea of adjustable brightnes is a a good one.

It's not uncommon to cover the LED with tape for a show in a hall as long as we remember to remove it after the show is over.

 

[333rocky333]

I think it may have changed when self test fittings became popular, as they tended to be Green for good and Red faulty, we get a few calls where clients have thought lights were faulty due to the older fittings being Red, a lot of changes finally came into force I think year 2000, when the running man became legislation and the single word Exit was banned.

Also it may be in line with-
The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996
Where Red and Green are 2 of the 4 recognised colours
Edit
https://www.luxreview.com/2017/02/1...icator-on-self-contained-emergency-lights-be/

 

[333rocky333]

https://www.sis.se/api/document/preview/8028685/

See 22.7.7

 

[Adam_151]

As far as I know it was to do with eurpeon harmonisation and happened around 2006/2007. I seem to remember there being a bit of info put out by the manufacturers explaining the change and that some makes you could order either the older version, or the red LED (for ones on a flying lead) for if you'd got a project underway so you didn't end up with a mix.

On a similar note, while most fittings do impliment it as a "charge" led, I know of one varient where it is more "charge supply available" in that it'll light even if the battery pack isn't plugged in, I'm not sure whether there is any set guidence with this, but it seemed a bit backwards.

Some of the modern fittings do seem very cheaply built and prone to failure, while the light output from a lot of teh LED fittings is brilliant, its a bit naff having to change fittings quicker than you'd change battery packs and lamps in the older ones. I was doing some work in a building completed mid 70s a little while ago and the emergecny lights has a filament lamp of the type you'd find in a torch, the power supply was linear and appeared to have been hand soldered (in this country according to the label) and they actually had full size octal relays in (no base, it was mounted side on and the pins soldered to). Most fittings were dead, a couple did light very dimly on power failure though, which is quite remarkable at about 45 years old and seemingly never hd any maintenance, and of course there was sparse provision of them compared to what you'd fit today.

 

[ericmark]

I see

Where an electrical light source indicator is used, it shall comply with the colour requirements of IEC 6 0073 and be green

I use a rechargeable torch for my emergency light it also has a movement detector so going onto the landing at night it gives a small amount of light at the top of the stairs. It seems this would not comply, even though in many ways it does a better job, there is no indication lamp.

 

[winston1]

I think it may have changed when self test fittings became popular, as they tended to be Green for good and Red faulty, we get a few calls where clients have thought lights were faulty due to the older fittings being Red, a lot of changes finally came into force I think year 2000, when the running man became legislation and the single word Exit was banned.

Also it may be in line with-
The Health and Safety (Safety Signs and Signals) Regulations 1996
Where Red and Green are 2 of the 4 recognised colours
Edit
https://www.luxreview.com/2017/02/1...icator-on-self-contained-emergency-lights-be/

The first line of that link is rubbish. Green LEDs we’re available from the outset along with red and yellow. Blue and white were much later however.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

"The first visible-light LEDs were of low intensity and limited to red." [wikipedia]

 

[chivers67]

I built an electronic dice during my BTEC back in the 80's with an array of Red LEDS. It's amazing the way Technology has changed LED wise!

 

[SUNRAY]

Green LEDs we’re available from the outset along with red and yellow.

More false information.

 

[SUNRAY]

I built an electronic dice during my BTEC back in the 80's with an array of Red LEDS. It's amazing the way Technology has changed LED wise!

Oh goodnes yes, my first calculator was mains powered with Nixie tubes then I got a batterypowered calculator with LED 7 seg display and in a normally lit room I recall shielding it against the light to be able to read it and rued the day the old one failed. Now I find some LED indicators are so bright they dazzle and I struggle to see the controls.

I too made an electronic dice, from Practical Electronics, and the design had options for both LED's (dim) or 6V bulbs (brighter)