Emergency lighting: a strategic advantage

The need for resilient, efficient, and future-ready healthcare infrastructure has never been more urgent. As the world experiences an increase in healthcare demand driven by population growth, aging demographics, climate volatility, and global health crises, healthcare buildings must be prepared to operate under both normal and emergency conditions. At the heart of operational continuity and life safety is a system sometimes taken for granted: emergency and exit lighting.

Despite its foundational role in patient and staff safety, emergency lighting is often overlooked in broader infrastructure planning conversations. Yet, it represents one of the simplest yet most impactful areas where future-proofing efforts can be implemented immediately, and cost-effectively.

The critical role of emergency and exit lighting in healthcare settings

In any commercial building, emergency and exit lighting is essential. In a hospital or health facility, its importance is amplified. Healthcare facilities operate continuously, often with vulnerable, immobile, or critically ill patients and visiting public who are unfamiliar with the complex built environment.

Emergency and exit lighting serve multiple key 
functions:

• Illuminates pathways for safe evacuation during power outages or fire incidents.
• Supports staff in continuing critical procedures during disruptions.
• Reinforces compliance with building codes and healthcare accreditation standards.
• Improves evacuation response times during crisis situations.

In short, when emergency lighting fails, the consequences can be life-threatening. However, merely installing compliant systems is no longer enough.

Understanding compliance

In Australia, the National Construction Code (NCC) prescribes emergency lighting and the minimum standard for emergency lighting is AS/NZS 2293, which governs performance, installation, and maintenance. The standard mandates:

• Specific illuminance levels for exit paths.
• System duration (typically 90 minutes under battery power).
• Periodic inspection and testing.
• Accurate and up-to-date record keeping.

The standard ensures that the emergency lighting is installed appropriately and is always ready to operate if and when required.

Beyond the standard, modern health care facility managers are facing additional challenges. These pressures are increasing and include such things as ready access to data, prioritising environmental goals, and operating under increasing cost constraints.

Healthcare facility managers must therefore adopt a future-focused mindset beyond the minimum performance requirements of the standard: maintaining compliance, but also building for continuity, innovation, and resilience.

Key challenges in today’s emergency lighting systems

Healthcare facilities across Australia are at varying stages of maturity in their emergency lighting systems. Some of the common challenges observed include:

1. Ageing infrastructure and legacy technologies

Many public and private hospitals are operating with emergency lighting systems that were installed over a decade ago. These legacy systems are typically:

• Less energy efficient.
• Based on outdated battery technologies (e.g. NiCd or NiMH).
• Difficult and expensive to maintain.
• Prone to inconsistent performance or system-wide failures.
• Installed with first cost considerations rather than whole-of-life approach.

2. Manual testing and maintenance regimes

Traditional testing methods involve physical inspections and test-switch testing of each luminaire every six months. This approach is:

• Labour-intensive.
• Subject to human error — it is impossible to be at every fittings at the conclusion of the 90 minute discharge test.
• Difficult to scale across large campuses.
• Often results in delayed fault detection.
• On older sites in particular, little or no baseline data to support an understanding of the asset profile and forward maintenance plan.

3. Limited integration with data platforms

Emergency lighting systems have traditionally been isolated from other digital infrastructure. As hospitals adopt integrated BMS and centralised data platforms, having siloed systems hinders efficiency and visibility. Lack of real-time data makes it difficult to respond quickly or diagnose system issues remotely. Valuable emergency lighting asset information is not able to be matched with other building information required to optimise performance, manage risk and provide a proactive view of asset health.

4. Increasing awareness and accountability for environmental sustainability

Energy use in healthcare is under the microscope. Facility leaders are seeking energy-efficient technologies that align with environmental and ESG targets. Older emergency lighting systems typically consume more power and rely on environmentally unfriendly battery chemistries.

Furthermore, as end of life disposal costs continue to increase, there is a growing requirement to not only appropriately dispose of end of life fittings but provide evidence that this has been done.

Innovations in emergency and exit lighting technology

The future of emergency lighting lies in digitalisation, sustainability, and smarter design. Leading health facilities are transforming their systems in a number of ways:

A. Smart monitoring and system automation

Smart emergency lighting systems utilise wireless communication protocols and centralised monitoring platforms to automate:

• Compliance testing.
• Fault diagnostics.
• Maintenance scheduling.
• Reporting and documentation.
• Access to real time data: asset health, predictive maintenance, and dashboard summaries.

The latest systems consolidate information so that the facility manager can quickly view compliance status and system health. They also allow for enhanced functionality to provide further optimisation and enhancement of health facilities. Functions such as occupancy sensing and lighting control can be incorporated without the requirement for additional infrastructure.

B. Sustainable battery technology

One of the most significant innovations in recent years is the introduction of lithium nanophosphate batteries. Compared to traditional battery types, this technology offers:

• Extended life expectancy of 12+ years, more than double the lifespan of other lithium technologies.
• High thermal stability and improved safety under stress or exposure to heat.
• Lower total cost of ownership, through reduced maintenance and replacement cycles.
• Environmental benefits, as they do not contain heavy metals and have a lower disposal impact.
• Fully recyclable at end of life.

These batteries provide peace of mind that the emergency luminaires will perform on loss of power, while dramatically reducing maintenance costs.

C. Sustainable and low-energy design

Modern LED emergency luminaires are significantly 
more efficient than older technologies, consuming 
less energy and requiring fewer replacements. Manufacturing and quality advancements also mean that fittings also match the performance of the latest battery technology. When paired with lithium nanophosphate batteries and intelligent power control systems, the environmental footprint of emergency lighting is substantially reduced.

Other sustainable opportunities continue to emerge. Changes in emergency luminaire lens technology mean that, in some applications, half the number of fittings are required to achieve compliance simply by choosing the appropriate fitting — resulting in half the installation, energy, compliance, and end of life cost. End of life return-to-manufacturer schemes address disposal costs and the complexity of obtaining environment certificates. Also, some hospitals are combining emergency lighting upgrades with energy efficiency programs such as LED batten replacements as part of broader Net Zero strategies.

D. Design for modular scalability and upgrades

Futureproofing means thinking long term. Systems should be:

• Modular, so that new wings or departments can be integrated without overhauling the existing infrastructure.
• System support and updates, with firmware, software updates, and lifetime technical support delivered remotely.
• Future-ready, flexible, and scalable lifecycle management options so that there is no system end of life — just backwards compatible upgrade pathways.
• Protocol-flexible, using open communication standards to support interoperability with BMS, fire, and security systems.

Case study

Emergency lighting transformation in action

A major hospital partnered with a leading Australian emergency lighting manufacturer to upgrade its outdated emergency lighting system. The existing system required:

• Physical manual testing — which was disruptive, time consuming, and expensive.
• Inefficient luminaires.
• High fitting failure rates resulting in unacceptably high and unpredictable maintenance costs.

These issues are often referred to as the burden of compliance. The solution included:

• A full transition to a wireless monitored emergency lighting system with lithium nanophosphate batteries.
• Integration with the facility’s central BMS via a secure MQTT API.
• Deployment of automated compliance testing, generating real-time reports.
• Implementation of LED fittings across all wards, corridors, and public areas.

Outcomes expected within the first year:

• Maintenance costs reduced by 62 per cent.
• Energy consumption dropped by 47 per cent, aligned with hospital sustainability targets.
• Compliance test pass rate improved from 84 per cent to greater than 99 per cent.
• Staff confidence increased, knowing systems were monitored and self-reporting.

The hospital was able to implement automatic emergency lighting testing and monitoring throughout the facility with near zero infrastructure required and utilising luminaires with 12+ year service life that will deliver maintenance free emergency and exiting for the life of the system.

These results are in line with similar upgrade projects in other health organisation and demonstrates that a well-planned upgrade can yield measurable operational, safety, sustainability, and financial benefits.

Conclusion

The foundation of a future-proof healthcare facility lies in getting the fundamentals right, and emergency and exit lighting is one of those non-negotiable fundamentals. While often considered a ‘set-and-forget’ system, emerging technologies have made it possible to turn emergency lighting system into a strategic advantage.

By embracing smart systems, long life batteries, and sustainable design, healthcare facilities can more easily achieve:

• Regulatory and compliance standards.
• Enhanced safety for patients and staff.
• Improved resilience during emergencies.
• Reduced operational costs and environmental impact.
• Readiness for future regulatory and technological change.

In a world where the future is uncertain, lighting the way forward — literally and figuratively — starts with getting the basics right in emergency lighting.

Acknowledgement

• This article originally appeared in the IHEA Healthcare Facilities Journal.