With the maturity of the LED business and the transparency of general lighting technology, the fight for scale and quality control has begun. Users have been paying greater attention to the usage of emergency lighting in recent years due to increased safety awareness, and emergency power supplies, which are the foundation of emergency lighting, are crucial.
However, customers are currently unaware of emergency power supplies. Isn't it only a battery-operated power supply? On the surface, the two seem to be almost identical; yet, the emergency power supply's core technology is much more advanced than the driving power supply's. Its duties include driving, controlling the power supply, and connecting and disconnecting. The unique feature of the emergency power supply is that it is a recessive product, meaning it is often not operational. Technically speaking, the primary distinction between the two is that the emergency power supply can supply steady illumination in the case of a power outage or in certain particular circumstances, like when there are significant grid fluctuations or power outages, and emergency lighting is turned on to take the place of the primary light source. As the name suggests, an emergency power supply must be triggered in a more dire circumstance. Another crucial responsibility of an emergency power supply is to make sure that a supply that is mostly in a standby condition can function correctly when called upon.
Both regular driving power and an emergency power source
An emergency power supply differs from a regular power supply in that it features an emergency function that may initiate backup battery lights in an emergency. Its fundamental operation is a low-voltage DC power supply provided by the AC/DC drive control circuit and daily direct electricity from the city. During routine maintenance, it primarily powers the LED lighting and charges the system's spare battery. In the event of a malfunction or when the main power fails, the emergency backup battery powers the electrical equipment and operates the emergency light. The user's needs for an emergency power supply are significantly higher than those for a regular power supply due to its uniqueness and significance. These needs include response time, emergency lighting duration, battery capacity, conversion efficiency, and other aspects of the power supply's operation when the power is cut off.
Time needed for startup or conversion
The actual engineering and applicable laws dictate that the start-up/conversion time varies: safety lighting conversion time should not exceed 0.5 seconds, while standby and evacuation lights conversion times should not exceed 5 seconds.
Efficiency of conversion
A battery with a low conversion efficiency must be equipped with a larger capacity battery; a battery with a high conversion efficiency will be smaller at the same power, more energy-efficient, and less expensive. The higher the conversion efficiency, or the utilization rate of the battery, that is, the energy loss ratio of the battery's energy converted to the output emergency light power supply, the better.
Voltage switching
In terms of voltage conversion, the residential market is typically 132-187V; thus, when the electricity is lowered to 132V, the emergency lights has to be turned on. It has to be returned to the main power status if the voltage rises beyond 187V. This range also applies to the European market.
Time for emergency lights
Firework areas, emergency lighting such as fire control rooms, power distribution rooms, water pump rooms, etc., must be continuously powered for at least 180 minutes. Emergency lighting for general evacuation areas, vertical evacuation areas, crowded evacuation areas, and underground evacuation areas must last at least 30 minutes. Emergency lighting for emergency evacuation sites and evacuation areas must last at least 60 minutes. The battery has a major impact on the emergency illumination duration. Currently, it is often three hours in nations like Europe and more than or equivalent to 90 minutes in China.
Brightness of emergency lights
The battery's output power has the most impact on emergency lights brightness. A more general option is to employ continuous power output to regulate the technology in order to control the output power via the power supply. The variation is somewhat significant since the constant current method could additionally need to account for the lamp bead's voltage and current. The European market contains at least 5W under typical conditions. It is vital to give solutions that are appropriate for the particular circumstances, unless the client has specific needs about the brightness of emergency lights on certain occasions.
Aside from meeting a number of stringent performance standards, emergency lighting is a fire safety product, which means that all of its components must be designed strictly in compliance with safety regulations, meet safety certification requirements, and have above-average reliability.
Emergency lighting is currently widely used in manufacturing facilities, mining and industrial facilities, chemical plants, shopping centers, gas stations, stages, and other locations where there are high standards for product performance and dependability as well as regional requirements, such as product temperature adaptability.
