NFPA 101 Emergency Lighting Standards: What They Are and How to Follow Them

Also known as the Life Safety Code, NFPA 101 lays out the ways to minimize the dangers of fire, smoke, toxic fumes, and other such hazards. This code details requirements for new and existing buildings, which are defined by their occupancy classification (Assembly, Educational, Healthcare, Residential, etc.). 

In this article, we’ll walk through the NFPA 101 emergency lighting standards, as found in chapters 7.8–7.10. Note that so long as it meet the requirements for both, equipment installed to satisfy the requirements of 7.10 can also serve as illumination of the means of egress.

• Assembly occupancy: spaces made for groups of 50+ people to gather in
• Authority having jurisdiction (AHJ): any organization, office, or individual in charge of approving equipment, installations, materials, or procedures and enforcing codes and standards
• Egress: to leave a space
• Egress opening: window or door
• Exit access: aisles, corridors, escalators, passageways, ramps, and stairs within a building leading to the exit
• Exit discharge: aisles, corridors, escalators, passageways, ramps, and stairs outside of a building leading away from the exit and to the public way/safety point
• Foot-candle (fc.): measure of illuminance, one lumen per square foot
• Means of egress (MOE): a path to leave a space, made up of the exit access, the exit, and the exit discharge

MOE should remain illuminated for as long as the means are necessary to use. A caveat to this is that automatic lighting control devices are allowed to turn off the illumination of MOE temporarily so long as

• Automatic lighting control devices
  • Are listed (if part of a new installation)
  • Are able to energize controlled lights automatically in the case that normal power is lost
  • Are activated by movement
  • Are activated by the building’s fire alarm system being activated (this also only applies to new installations)
  • Do not turn off lights necessary for activating photoluminescent exit signs or path markers
  • Do not turn off exit signs, unit equipment, or emergency luminaries equipped with batteries
• Illumination timers are provided and set for at least 15 minutes

Any energy-saving controllers, sensors, switches, or timers must be approved and cannot interfere with the continuity of illumination of MOE.

Walking surfaces in exit accesses, exits, and exit discharges must be illuminated according to the following criteria:

Lighting should be arranged so that if one unit is not working, every area will still be illuminated at least 0.2 fc.

The source of illumination of MOE is determined by your AHJ, but note that electric lights operating on batteries and other portable lamps/lanterns cannot be used as the primary illumination of MOE.

Emergency lighting of MOE must be provided for

• Buildings/structures specified in NFPA 101 chapters 11–43
• Limited access and underground structures
• High-rise buildings
• Stair shafts
• Smokeproof enclosure vestibles
• Doors featuring delayed-egress locks
• Doors with access-control

In areas where maintaining illumination is dependent on changing energy sources, there can be no more than a 10 second delay.

Emergency lighting systems must provide at least 1.5 hours of lighting and be arranged to provide at least 1 fc. of initial illumination and no less than 0.1 fc. at any time. Levels of illumination can decline no less than 0.6 fc. and no less than 0.06 fc. at any point during the 1.5 hour period. The illumination ratio should never be more than 40 to 1.

Systems should automatically provide the required illumination if normal lighting is interrupted because of

• Public utility or outside electrical power supply failure
• A circuit breaker or fuse being opened
• Manual acts, such as accidentally opening a control switch

Systems must either

• Operate continuously OR
• Be able to operate automatically on repeat without manual intervention

Systems must be tested according to one of three options:

Regardless of how they are being tested, systems should be fully operational during the entirety of annual tests.

Exits should be marked by approved signs visible from any direction of exit accesses. If the continuation of MOE isn’t obvious, be sure to mark it with directional exit signs.

Tactile signs—AKA signs featuring braille—must

• Be located at each exit door requiring an exit sign
• Read “EXIT”
• Comply with ICC/ANSI A117.1 American National Standard for Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities

Exits and the ways to them should be marked if they are not readily apparent to occupants. New signs cannot be more than viewing distance or 100 ft. from the nearest sign.

Floor proximity exit signs should be between 6–18 in. from floor level and cannot exist in isolation; door and corridor signs are also necessary where floor proximity signs are present.

Floor proximity egress path marking systems must be

• Internally illuminated
• Installed within 18 in. of the floor
• Listed with ANSI/UL 1994 Standard for Luminous Egress Path Marking Systems
• Continuous, though interruptions are allowed for corridors, doorways, hallways, and the like
• Operated continuously or upon activation of the building’s fire alarm system
• Maintained according to product manufacturing listing

Exit signs should be easy to see and contrast with their surroundings. No decor or equipment is allowed to impair visibility of signs and other lit signs that might take attention away from exit signs are not allowed in or near the line of vision of exit signs.

The markings for egress openings cannot be wider than the opening or more than 6 ft. and 8 in. above the top edge of the opening.

If the location of the nearest exit isn’t obvious, you must install a sign with a directional indicator showing which direction the nearest exit is.

Signs must plainly and legibly read “EXIT.” Pictograms that are compliant with NFPA 170 Standard for Fire Safety and Emergency Symbols can also be featured on signs, if approved by your AHJ.

Unless a sign is photoluminescent or self-luminous, it must be illuminated by emergency lighting facilities. By the end of the duration of emergency lighting, illumination is allowed to decline to 60%.

Every sign must be

• Continuously illuminated by a reliable light source
• Legible in normal and emergency lighting

Signs are also allowed to flash when the fire alarm system is activated.

Signs illuminated externally must read “EXIT” (or a different wording deemed appropriate) and letters must adhere to the following guidelines:

• New signs: 6 in. high, minimum 2 in. wide (except the “I”), maximum ⅜ in. spaces between letters
• Existing signs: 4 in. high, minimum 2 in. wide (except the “I”), maximum ⅜ in. spaces between letters

The principal strokes of letters on new signage should be ¾ in. wide.

For signs with directional indicators on them, the symbol must be a chevron that is at least ⅜ in. away from any letter and located at the end of the sign. Additionally, directional signs should be able to be identifed as such from at least 40 ft. away. The chevron indicators on these signs must be illuminated to a minimum of 5 fc. and have at least a 0.5 contrast ratio.

Internally illuminated signs must be listed according to ANSI/UL 924, unless they are

• Approved existing signs
• Existing signs with legible required wording at least 4 in. high
• Compliant with
  • 7.10.1.3 Exit Door Tactile Signage
  • 7.10.1.6 Floor Proximity Exit Signs

Photoluminescent signs should be illuminated the entire time the building is occupied and must have reliable light sources, as determined by your AHJ.

Special signs must be compliant with

• 7.10.5 Illumination of Signs
• 7.10.6.3 Levels of Illumination
• 7.10.7 Internally Illuminated Signs

Additionally, illumination must be provided for special signs under emergency lighting conditions. Just like tactile signs, special signs must be in compliance with ICC/ANSI A117.1.

Any door, passage, or stairway that is not an exit or way to exit access and might be mistaken as such should be marked with a “NO EXIT” sign. These signs should be structured so that “NO” is above “EXIT.” The letters in “NO” should be 2 in. in height and ⅜ in. wide, while the lettering of “EXIT” only needs to be 1 in. high.

Any elevator that is part of MOE must have signs indicating both the fact that the elevator can be used for egress and the operational status of the elevator. The letters on these signs should be ⅝ in. tall.

Finally, floor evacuation diagrams must be

• Representative of the actual floor plan and exit locations
• Posted according to the standards of your AHJ

Visually inspect your signs at least every 30 days. Test and maintain any signs connected to/provided with emergency illumination sources running on batteries according to the periodic testing requirements outlined in the previous section of this article.

Obviously, there is a lot to keep track of when it comes to NFPA 101 emergency lighting standards—so much that you likely feel overwhelmed at the prospect of doing so on your own. The good news is, you don’t have to!

Here at InspectNTrack, we offer industry-leading software for managing emergency lighting systems able to be configured to your specific needs. InspectNTrack makes compliance simple with automated inspection schedules, flexibility with barcode inputs, and automatically optimized routes that keep checks as time-efficient as possible and update as technicians go about them. Additionally, if any inspections are failed, we help you navigate your next steps with corrective actions that log problems, notify the proper personnel, and more.

NFPA 101 emergency lighting standards exist to keep you and your staff safe; InspectNTrack is here to make doing so easier.