AU2018100229A4

AU2018100229A4 - An emergency exit arrangement for a building

Info

Publication number: AU2018100229A4
Application number: AU2018100229A
Authority: AU
Inventors: David Sloan
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-11-09
Filing date: 2018-02-22
Publication date: 2018-03-22
Anticipated expiration: 2021-11-07
Also published as: AU2013254925A1

Abstract

An emergency exit arrangement including an illuminatable exit sign mountable in close proximity to an exit door of a building wherein the illuminatable exit sign is powered by AC mains power supply and an internal energy source. There is a flashing light mountable also in close proximity to the exit door and the flashing light is configured to be in electrical/electronic communication with the internal energy source of the illuminated exit sign such that when the AC mains power supply is interrupted the flashing light is able to draw power from said internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign so as to commence and maintain flashing while the AC mains power supply is interrupted. %s.

Description

AN EMERGENCY EXIT ARRANGEMENT FOR A BUILDING FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[001] This invention relates to an emergency exit arrangement for a building and more particularly to an arrangement that includes a pre-existing illuminated exit sign in close proximity to an exit door.

BACKGROUND ART DISCUSSION

[002] It is now fairly common practice that in most buildings there is the requirement to include an illuminatable exit sign in close proximity to an exit door so as to assist the occupants of the building in identifying how to exit a building during evacuations and other similar emergency situations.

[003] For the most part these exit signs remain illuminated continuously and maintain power for illumination from conventional AC mains supply to the building.

[004] There are some exit signs that do not remain continuously illuminated such as those in cinemas and so forth. These types of exit signs typically only become illuminated when the AC mains supply is interrupted. Nonetheless, whether the light is continuously illuminated or illuminatable at certain periods, they are all characterised in having an internal energy source which is generally a back-up battery such that if the AC mains supply to the exit sign is interrupted the back-up internal battery takes over the task of keeping the exit sign illuminated.

[005] As is to be expected this is particularly advantageous as people tend to look for an exit door in emergency situations, wherein many emergency situations such as a fire and so forth are characterised in the AC mains supply being cut or disconnected from the building.

[006] The purpose of the illuminated exit sign therefore offers a way in which the exit door can be recognised.

[007] Nonetheless, the further away from an exit an occupant of the building is from the illuminated sign, the harder it might be to see, especially if there is smoke and so forth in the building and/or the person inside the building is unfamiliar with the layout of the floor where the exits may or may not be.

[008] The problem is compounded often when the exit door may be surrounded by additional signage such as advertising material, notice boards, hanging picture frames and so forth, all adversely lowering the overall distinguishability and distinctiveness of the exit sign from its surroundings and its function to highlight and assist in recognising where an exit door may be located.

[009] Therefore, while an illuminated sign may assist in identifying where an exit door may be located, there also needs to be an additional means to highlight or direct the occupants of the building towards that illuminated exit sign particularly in cases when the occupant is further away from the illuminated sign than would be expected and the person inside the building is unfamiliar with the layout of the floor and the various exit doors available. In a noisy environment, such as a workshop, building occupants may be familiar with exit locations, but not be able to hear any audible warning to evacuate.

[010] One way in which to overcome this problem presented to the building occupants is to provide these conventional illuminatable exit signs with the ability to start flashing when power is interrupted to the light and/or a signal from a fire panel is sent to the circuitry contained inside the light which is then adapted to send a signal to the controller of the light such that the light begins to start flashing.

[011] The problem with such an arrangement is that while the introduction of a flashing light may help identify where the exit door is located, research has shown that if people were confronted with a flashing exit sign rather than thinking that would be a safe point to exit the building, the contrary would be the case because as they have never seen the exit sign flashing before, concerns would be raised that it is only now flashing in consequence as some type of warning wherein that particular exit door should now be avoided.

[012] One obvious way of overcoming this problem may be to place a flashing light close to the exit door wherein the flashing light helps direct people towards the exit door without altering the illuminated Exit Sign.

[013] Nonetheless as the flashing light is a separate entity to the Exit Sign it would need its own electrical wiring, power source and communication controller so that if mains power supplied to the building is interrupted and/or a signal was sent from a fire indicator panel the flashing light would then begin to flash.

[014] For each floor of the building every exit would require their own separate illuminatable exit light and also have separate wiring and so forth for the flashing light.

[015] While installation costs would be significantly increased through the requirement of two separate devices, the real cost and inconvenience also comes during maintenance and testing wherein as the flashing light is a separate entity to the exit light there will be the requirement to undertake separate maintenance and testing on not only the exit sign but now also the flashing light.

[016] It would therefore be particularly advantageous if an arrangement could be provided that would be able to utilise the benefits of a flashing light in order to direct an occupant of a building towards an exit door that has been identified with an illuminatable flashing light but to do so without disrupting the normal operation and intended display of an exit sign light and to do so without bringing any additional costs to the installation, maintenance and testing of the conventional illuminatable exit sign.

[017] It is an object of this invention to provide such an arrangement or at least present to the public an alternative emergency exit arrangement for a building.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[018] Accordingly in one form of the invention there is provided an emergency exit arrangement for a building adapted to raise awareness of an exit door location for an occupant of said building during a power failure and/or emergency situation, said arrangement including; [019] an illuminatable exit sign mountable in close proximity to an exit door within a building; [020] said illuminatable exit sign powered by said building’s AC mains supply and further including an internal energy source that acts as a back-up power source when the AC mains supply is interrupted; [021] a flashing light mountable in close proximity to the exit door to which said illuminatable exit sign has been mounted; [022] said flashing light, when mounted, configured to be in electrical/electronic communication with the internal energy source of the illuminated exit sign such that when the power is interrupted to the illuminatable exit sign said flashing light is able to draw power from said internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign so as to commence and maintain flashing of said flashing light.

[023] In preference the arrangement further includes internal circuitry within the illuminatable exit sign in communication with a fire indicator arrangement within the building, said circuitry also in electrical/electronic communication with the flashing light such that a selected signal from the fire indicator arrangement and/or interruption of the AC mains supply instigates flashing of the flashing light wherein power generation to maintain flashing of the flashing light is obtained either from the AC mains supply or from the internal energy source within the illuminatable exit sign.

[024] In preference the internal power source of the illuminatable exit sign is a battery and/or capacitor configured with a storage capacity providing a period of time as would be at least required in order to evacuate the building in which the arrangement has been installed.

[025] In preference the flashing light is connected to the internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign by way of an electric cable or wire.

[026] In preference the electrical cable or wire is mounted behind wall and/or ceiling panels wherein a further preferred embodiment the cable is connected externally inside a channel.

[027] In preference the circuitry inside the illuminatable exit sign includes a test button such that the activation of the test button is able to establish a condition led by the illuminatable exit sign that AC mains supply has been disrupted and/or the fire indicator panel has sent a signal indicating an emergency situation such that activation of said button correlates to the commencement of the flashing of the flashing light, with the power generation being derived either from the internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign or the AC mains supply.

[028] An advantage of such an arrangement is that for the first time there is the one single arrangement which brings together the use of the conventional illuminatable exit sign with the benefits of a flashing light.

[029] Nonetheless as the flashing light relies upon the internal energy source contained within the illuminatable exit sign such that an interruption of the AC mains supply to the illuminatable exit sign will not only instigate the powering of the illuminatable exit sign by the internal energy source such as a battery but at the same time use this internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign to also place into operation and power the flashing light.

[030] Advantageously there needs to be no two separate tasks in installation of a separate illuminatable exit sign and that of a flashing light.

[031] As the flashing light is powered either from the AC mains supply which is provided to the illuminatable exit sign or the same internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign the wiring requires only a single connection and so too a single maintenance testing operation to make sure that the AC mains supply and/or the internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign is behaving appropriately in that if AC mains supply is interrupted and/or a signal comes from the fire indicator arrangement, that power will still be available to illuminate the exit sign but as introduced above advantageously also at the same time provide a power source with which to have the flashing light powered for the light to flash appropriately at the required time.

[032] Therefore whether it is in a building, a public space, a noisy environment where building occupants may not be able to hear a message to evacuate, or in shopping centres where there is a lot of advertising which makes it hard to differentiate where the exit sign is and in situations where someone is unfamiliar with the layout of the building or location where they are in, they can now be assisted in being able to raise their awareness as to how to exit the building through the dual benefits of both an illuminated exit sign and a separate flashing light.

[033] Having a flashing illuminated exit sign could actually disrupt and cause confusion as general human behaviour and recognition of the exit sign would be that a flashing light may be representing the requirement to be cautious and avoid such an exit.

[034] As the person skilled in the art in this area of technology would be aware, it is important not to tinker with things that people are familiar with because any change in that familiarity, especially in times of an emergency such as a fire and similar evacuation scenarios, could result in people becoming confused and disorientated.

[035] Therefore it is critical that the conventional illuminatable exit sign is not tampered with or created with additional functionality to make it flash as this could be disruptive rather than act in assisting awareness of a preferred exit door for an occupant of the building to head towards during an emergency situation.

[036] In order now to describe the invention in greater detail some preferred embodiments will be Described with the assistance of the accompanying illustrations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[037] Figure 1 is a schematic representation showing a preferred embodiment of the invention for the emergency exit arrangement for a building.

[038] Figure 2 is a similar schematic representation to Figure 1 however this embodiment includes further circuitry and control within the arrangement wherein the flashing light is also in communication with a fire indicator panel.

[039] Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a preferred embodiment of the invention illustrating the emergency exit arrangement for the building, in operation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[040] Referring to the drawings now in greater detail wherein the general embodiment of this preferred embodiment of Figure 1 is shown as (10) which includes an illuminatable exit sign (12) having the words EXIT (14) embossed thereon such that as is to be expected when the light is illuminated, the word EXIT is readable upon the light (12).

[041] The illuminatable exit sign (12) includes an internal energy source which in this embodiment is a battery (26) where the battery is in communication with a controller (28) which itself is in communication with the mains power supply (16) which for the most part can be the source of power generation to keep the exit sign (12) illuminated.

[042] Control (28) of the illuminated exit sign is such that if there is disruption to the AC mains supply and/or a signal is sent to the controller (28) this then sets into action the illumination of the illuminated exit sign (12).

[043] Nonetheless, the arrangement also importantly includes a flashing light (20) which is connected by way of an electrical cord or wire (18) to the exit sign (12) and is configured as such that once the exit sign (12) needs to be illuminated through the battery (26) this also constitutes a scenario which leads to the illumination of the flashing light (20) which in this embodiment includes a strobe type (24) arrangement to provide the flashing characteristics of the light (20).

[044] The arrangement (30) generally shown in Figure 2 is not dissimilar to the embodiment shown in Figure 1 however the exit sign (32) with the external signage EXIT (34) includes additional internal circuitry (42) which is in communication with the fire indicator panel (40) and also the mains AC power supply (36) [045] The exit sign (32) also includes the internal energy source which is a battery (38) such that if power is interrupted from the AC mains supply (36) the battery (38) takes over the energizing of the exit sign (32) to keep it illuminated and also provides the necessary energy to generate power through the electrical wiring (40) to the flashing light (31). Furthermore if the AC mains supply (36) is maintained but a signal from the fire indicator panel (40) is sent to the circuit control (42), AC mains power is transmitted through the electrical wiring (40) to the flashing light (31), with this scenario, the exit sign (32) is also illuminated by the AC mains supply (36).

[046] This arrangement also introduces the functionality of the maintenance aspect which means that both the exit sign (32) and the flashing light (31) can be checked for operation through two simple service buttons (39) wherein the pressing of the service buttons (39) can correlate to providing either a signal from the fire indicator panel (40) which would be registered on line (43) and/or the interruption of power with either scenario resulting in the exit sign (32) being illuminated and at the same time the commencing of the flashing of the flashing light (31).

[047] The flashing light (31) need not have its own separate battery as it is connected to the exit sign (32) which receives AC mains supply and also has an internal battery [048] Figure 3 simply expands upon the preferred arrangements discussed in Figures 1 and 2, showing the emergency exit arrangement mounted within a building such that the illuminatable exit sign (52) is mounted in close proximity to the exit door (54) and therein again the flashing light (56) is also in reasonably close proximity to both the illuminatable exit sign (52) and the exit door (54).

[049] While not shown in Figure 3, the flashing light (56) and the exit sign (52) are both in electrical/electronic communication with the other such that if the exit sign (52) recognises a disruption in the AC mains supply, this instigates the supply of power to the exit sign (52) through the internal energy source preferably being a battery of some sort.

[050] This same battery enclosed within the exit sign (52) is also responsible for the provision of energy in order to commence activation and maintain the flashing illumination of the flashing light (56).

[051] The flashing light (56) and the exit sign (52) are both in electrical/electronic communication with the other such that if the exit sign (52) receives a signal from a fire indicator panel or similar such building monitoring system, the flashing light is then activated and the flashing illumination maintained by the AC mains supply.

[052] While the walls of the building (50) could include a variety of additional paraphernalia such as clocks (58), picture frames (60) and (64), calendar (62) and so forth, the occupant (66) is not distracted from such signage which would make or potentially obscure the significance and distinguishability of the exit light (52) because in this emergency exit arrangement for the building of this invention there is also importantly included a flashing light (56) which assists the occupant (66) in identifying the way in which he or she must proceed to head towards the available exit door (54).

[053] Importantly, not only has the flashing light (56) been able to be introduced into the emergency exit arrangement of the invention, it has been able to be done so without having to have two separate installations and/or a protocol that would require the maintenance of two separate devices.

[054] As the flashing light (56) is connected to the exit sign (32), testing can be carried out through the one simple test.

Claims

THE CLAIMS DEFINING THE INVENTION ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. An emergency exit arrangement for a building adapted to raise awareness of an exit door location for an occupant of said building during a power failure and/or emergency situation, said arrangement including; an illuminatable exit sign mountable in close proximity to an exit door within a building; said illuminatable exit sign powered by said building’s AC mains power supply and an internal energy source acting as a back-up power source for said illuminatable exit sign when the AC mains power supply is interrupted; a flashing light mountable in close proximity to the exit door to which said illuminatable exit sign has been mounted; said flashing light, when mounted, configured to be in electrical/electronic communication with the internal energy source of the illuminated exit sign such that when the AC mains power supply is interrupted to the illuminatable exit sign said flashing light is able to draw power from said internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign so as to commence and maintain flashing of said flashing light while the AC mains power supply is interrupted.
2. The arrangement of claim 1 further including internal circuitry within the illuminatable exit sign in electrical/electronic communication with a fire indicator arrangement within the building, said internal circuitry also in electrical/electronic communication with the flashing light such that a selected signal from the fire indicator arrangement and/or interruption of the AC mains power supply instigates flashing of the flashing light wherein power generation to maintain flashing of the flashing light is obtainable either from the internal energy source within the illuminatable exit sign or from the AC mains power supply.
3. The arrangement of claim 2 wherein the internal power source of the illuminatable exit sign is a battery and/or capacitor configured with a storage capacity providing a period of time to maintain the flashing of the said flashing light in order to allow occupants enough time to evacuate the building in which the arrangement has been installed and wherein the flashing light is connected to the internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign by way of an electric cable or wire.
4. The arrangement of claim 3 the electrical cable or wire is mounted behind wall and/or ceiling panels of the building or wherein the electric cable or wire is connected externally on wall and/or ceiling panels inside a channel and/or wherein the internal circuitry inside the illuminatable exit sign includes a first test button such that during an activation of the first test button this interrupts AC mains power supply such that during activation of said first test button the power generation for illumination of the illuminatable exit sign and the flashing of the flashing light is derived from the internal energy source of the illuminatable exit sign.
5. The arrangement of claim 4 wherein the internal circuitry inside the illuminatable exit sign includes a second test button such that the activation of the second test button provides a signal from the fire indicator arrangement or at least an equivalent signal so as to test that the illuminatable exit sign is illuminatable and the flashing light commences flashing with the power for the illumination of the illuminatable exit sign and the flashing light being during the activation of the second test button being provided by the AC mains power supply.