Sustainability in Exit & Emergency lighting
Many products claim to be 'Green' or sustainable. The construction industry is rife with green washing. It is important to have informed understanding of products and their differences.
IF Award winning K9 Emergency and Exit Lighting by ETAP Lighting, is the smallest Exits and Emergencies. But there is so much more to this product, advanced self-testing and self-diagnosing, remote ESM monitoring, superior optics and most importantly sustainability. The K9 range shift away from the normal product design commonly supplied in Australia, to a smaller and environmentally friendly product.
DESIGN + MINIMALISM + EFFICIENCY + SUSTAINABILTY
Housings
Most of the Exit and Emergency lighting products offered in Australia and New Zealand are injection molded plastic. This is desirable for weight and cost. Injection Molded plastics cannot offer flexibility of finishes like alumium and powder coating. The K9 is offered in 3 standard finishes White, grey and black, custom RAL finishes on request.
Aluminium provides the support for the LED for longevity with heat dissipation, like any LED product, the key to good LED health ios keeping the LED cool. Same for the Battery with Lithium commonly used, becomes unstable in heat.
ETAP Lighting is accredited ISO90001 in environmental manufacturing practices, many of their products use recycled metals and materials that can be recycled. The aluminium housing on the K9 range as apposed to plastic housing. The long term effect of injection molded products being a product that is not biodegradable and very little plastics reproduction in Australia.
Optics.
ETAP Lighting use Plexiglass for their EXIT signage allowing a thin signage that illuminates to the ASNZ2293 mandated requirement.
The K9 Emergencies including the K9 Mini has unique optics not offered by other brands. The LED-LENs optics provides uniformity and efficiency. 2 beam options being square 'Anti-panic' or elongated 'escape-route' provide the perfect beam for ease of evacuation. The optics also provided compliant high ceiling ratings.
Batteries.
In Australia the most common batteries used in Exit and Emergency lighting is Lithium or Lithium Ion. This is selected because of the re-charge times and the documented life times in ideal conditions. Lithium cannot be recycled. More importantly, Lithium becomes unstable in warmth or heat like ceiling cavities or plastic housings. It is known through fire fighter that Evacuation fires are a cause of building fires. Less dramatic than a fire, like LED, if Lithium is not stored in ideal conditions, the battery life is compromised. No other brand in Australia and New Zealand apart from ETAP, offer warranties that include batteries and LED in their product warranties.
ETAP Lighting use NiMH - Nickel Metal Hydride batteries which CAN be recycled up to 95% at the end of the batteries functional life. The NiMH battery is smaller in size providing the opportunity for smaller products. NiMH are more stable than Lithium which helps to provide less product failure and no fires! EST+ self-testing includes a battery health cycle (like draining our iPhone) that preserves the battery life and advises the battery life and health.
Maintenance
Emergency and Exit Lighting Maintenance has become a big industry. The testing and uphold of Evacuation lighting for compliance ASNZ2293 costs many commercial buildings & body corporate thousands every year. Most products not offering an easy fixable solution. It is simpler for contractors to throw out the old faulty product and buy a new one. ETAP has easily upgraded, batteries and LED. Watch our quick battery replacement.
For contractors finding a product fault is a lengthy process not worth the fuss. Most brands in a Australia do not offer self-testing, if they do monitored and self-tests are often only providing if the product works or does not work.
ETAP offer comprehensive self-testing, self-diagnosing EST+ that detects the fault and reports via a indicator light or to the monitored ESM program.
Testing
EST+ also includes battery health and battery life for simple compliance reporting. ESM monitored system also report LED life. The system will print off comprehensive compliance reports. When a fault occurs, the system alerts maintenance and can order spare parts within the system. If the products are under warranty, the components are provided free.
Packaging.
ETAP Lighting products are supplied in compact recycled card board, no gloss printing. The boxes can be easily flat packed.
Each project, the pictograms are selected during ordering to reduce waste. Other brands provide a set with each product. The unused plastic pictograms are thrown out.
Design and Custom.
Bluelab Design offer full technical and design support for commercial evacuation lighting to ASNZ2293.
We also offer custom lighting solutions for Exit and Emergency lighting. We design within the guidelines of ASNZ2293.
Featured image: MECCA Flagship store Bourke St Mall, Melbourne.
Contact Bluelab for Emergency and Exit Lighting Design support.