That is common and because they are emergency exits, who cares about door alarms being triggered, if the place is on fire?
Arrow should point down, towards the exit door and the unit should provide some illumination below it, on to the door.
Exit sign
- Thread starter RF Lighting
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That is common and because they are emergency exits, who cares about door alarms being triggered, if the place is on fire?
Arrow should point down, towards the exit door and the unit should provide some illumination below it, on to the door.
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To comply to BS I would say upwards. Further arrows, illuminated or not along the route if required.
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I have just fitted 20 emergency lights, I let the H&S manager decide whats up or down
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Can't you understand it John?
It's simple, follow the arrow.
If it points right then go right, if it points left then go left.
If it points up then go forwards, onwards and if needed upwards.
If it points down then go under it (as it will be above the exit) and downwards. (this is usually at the top of a stairwell)
It's the direction of the fire exit - follow it.
Once past the arrow there will either be more information (another sign) guiding you or the exit will be obvious. (and in this case, you can clearly see the ground to exit to).
Even when panicking people will - after going through that door, go down the stairs. (if going down them is not the exit route then it must be signed to say so/blocked off). Adding a further downwards left arrow sign on the rail will further emphasize the exit route but is not needed.
Lectrician, it cannot be up as up indicates to go "straight on", to follow the arrow forwards (i.e. along a corridor) yet in this case there is no further forwards as the door leads directly to the escape.
It's simple, follow the arrow.
If it points right then go right, if it points left then go left.
If it points up then go forwards, onwards and if needed upwards.
If it points down then go under it (as it will be above the exit) and downwards. (this is usually at the top of a stairwell)
It's the direction of the fire exit - follow it.
Once past the arrow there will either be more information (another sign) guiding you or the exit will be obvious. (and in this case, you can clearly see the ground to exit to).
Even when panicking people will - after going through that door, go down the stairs. (if going down them is not the exit route then it must be signed to say so/blocked off). Adding a further downwards left arrow sign on the rail will further emphasize the exit route but is not needed.
Lectrician, it cannot be up as up indicates to go "straight on", to follow the arrow forwards (i.e. along a corridor) yet in this case there is no further forwards as the door leads directly to the escape.
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Consistency is not required, being correct is. many people may actually be aware of the meaning of the supplementary information the arrows provide.
If the other exits are marked wrong should they all be marked wrong?
Yes there is a sign that indicates going down the stairs, however the person has first to be directed to the stairs.
Sort it with those rolling string of lights, leading the way at floor level, like they some have in cinemas 
The down pointing arrows indicate the lane(s) to be in; not the direction of travel to follow like the other sign.
We had the fire inspection guy in college a few weeks ago, (new college and still some work taking place), and regarding the fire signs he said they should point in the direction of travel, i.e. left to go left, right to go right right angled to go ahead and turn in direction of arrow head. However, when the exit passed through a door it should point down. If the exit was then straight ahead after passing through the door they should revert to the upwards position until either another door or the final exit door when it should point down again.
I've looked on the internet but can't find any hard and fast rules/regulations but what he said seems to make sense.
I've looked on the internet but can't find any hard and fast rules/regulations but what he said seems to make sense.
If it were clearly understandable, we wouldn't be having this discussion, and we certainly wouldn't be seeing people giving opposite answers (seemingly about 37.5% 'Up' and 62.5% 'Down' so far - which is hardly a 'consensus')....
I wouldn't necessarily say that (if one even bothered to think about the arrows) following an arrow which was pointing at a ceiling would necessarilybe all that "simple"/obvious to everyone.
Given RF's question, everything I've said relates to signs above doors. As I have said, if someone needs to escape and sees a door with an illuminated sign, they will go through it, regardless of any arrows.
As you go on to say, once through the door, if what people should then do is not then obvious, further arrows will be useful (possibly 'necessary') - particularly if there are left/right choices to be made (other than in basements/cellars, it would be extremely unusual for 'up' to be an appropriate escape route - so, in any other situation, further up/down arrows probably are not very useful).
As above, I don't think that many people would, particularly 'in the heat of the moment' take any notice of the direction of an arrow on a sign above a door - but, since an arrow is 'required' one pointing down (i.e. pointing at the door) would seem the most obvious to me.
A sign over a door leading immediately to (upward) 'escape stairs' from a basement is a special case. Given that the first thing escapers have to do is to go through the door, an arrow pointing down (towards the door) would still seem the most logical to me, but I can see the argument for an 'up' arrow (particularly if the stairs start immediately beyond the door) - although I doubt that many people would even think about the significance of that.
Before one has gone through the door, left/right/diagonal arrows are not really relevant, and may well not really be understood.
When above a door, an 'up' arrow (i.e. pointing away from the door) is perhaps the one which (if noticed and thought about) might result in the most confusion. People do seem to generally understand that an 'up arrow' on a road sign means 'forward', but the irony (confusing) there is that, with road signs, people seem to understand that a 'down arrow' refers to travel in the opposite direction to which one is facing (i.e. 'backwards'), whereas the 'down arrow' above a door is being used to refer to moving 'forwards'.
In summary, personal view (obviously not compliant with regs) is that if the first thing person needs to do to escape is to go through the door, then all that matters is that the door is identified by an illuminated sign, and arrows pointing in any direction willnot really add anything to thast.
Kind Regards, John
Indeed - but, as I've just observed in another post, on a road signs a downward pointing arrow relating to direction of travel refers to travelling 'backwards' (away from the sign), not 'forwards' (towards the sign and through the door) as the downward pointing arrow above an escape door is being used (by a 5:3 majority of people here!) to indicate.
Kind Regards, John
It seems that things with 'Guidance' in their title often don't help, much, if at all (and not uncommonly do the opposite)
Kind Regards, John
There are definite rules however they include a common sense approach to limit confusion.
That's the good bit about standards, there are none
Sensible to look around and find the escape routes before the place catches fire, choose two as you won't know where the fire will be.
That doesn't help RF Lighting to decide point UP or point DOWN
I take arrow pointing down to mean here is the door out of the room.
That doesn't help RF Lighting to decide point UP or point DOWN
I take arrow pointing down to mean here is the door out of the room.
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