EN 1838 and UL 924: Emergency Lighting Codes
If you ship emergency luminaires, two codes decide whether they pass: EN 1838 in Europe and UL 924 in North America.
EN 1838 (Europe)
- Escape routes: at least 1 lx along the centre line of the route, with 0.5 lx across the rest.
- Switch-on: light must reach 50% of final brightness within 5 s and 100% within 60 s of mains failure.
- Duration: typically 1 h for non-residential buildings, 3 h where the risk or evacuation time is higher.
UL 924 (North America)
- Transfer time: emergency illumination must begin within 10 s of the power failure.
- Minimum duration: at least 90 minutes of emergency lighting.
- Levels: the code sets minimum illumination at the floor along the path of egress.
What it means for the driver
The emergency LED driver must deliver the rated duration from its battery and hit the switch-on time. XGW's emergency drivers are built to these timelines; see the selection guide for battery sizing.