Emergency lighting and escape signage (Spain)
A list of checks and obligations with their cadence, ready to add to your agenda.
For the operator of a place of public assembly, office, hotel or warehouse in Spain fitted with self-contained emergency luminaires and escape signage. It holds two different regimes together: the periodic tests of the luminaires, which no Spanish rule sets out with a figure — they come from UNE-EN 50172 and are stated here as practice — and the photoluminescent signage items, which the RIPCI spells out in full, annual review and twenty-year replacement included. It also states the one thing the REBT really fixes: one hour of design autonomy for escape lighting.
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Ask what is in the manuals, how often the maintenance is due and what it takes to do it.
What it already has at hand
- No manual on this page
- 7 planned checks, the most frequent every month since the last inspection
Planned checks
Informative summary verified on 12/09/2026. It does not replace legal advice: the regulation cited prevails. If you spot an error, report it.
Some checks are only mandatory in certain countries: pick yours and the list follows.
In Italy this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In France this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Germany this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Switzerland this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Austria this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In United Kingdom this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
- 01
Ensure one hour of autonomy for escape lighting
The REBT requires escape lighting to be able to operate for at least one hour from the moment of failure: this is a design requirement of the installation, not a periodic test, and it concerns the holder whenever the installation is extended or altered, or luminaires are replaced with different models. The authorised installer signing off the work is the one who verifies it; the holder is the one answerable for it. It is the only numeric requirement ITC-BT-28 actually contains: test frequencies live elsewhere.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 842/2002 (REBT) ITC-BT-28 ap. 3.1.1Spain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 02
Hand replaced luminaires over as WEEE
A self-contained emergency luminaire is WEEE with a battery inside: at the end of its life it goes to a collection point or an authorised manager, and the battery follows the Spanish rules on batteries and accumulators. This is an event rather than a cadence: it fires at every replacement, including the one-by-one swaps after a failed duration test, which is exactly when a unit is most likely to end up in the wrong bin. Whoever does the replacement takes the material away; the holder stays responsible until the delivery note is in hand.
continuous checkLegal obligationRD 110/2015 art. 4; RD 106/2008 (pilas y acumuladores)Spain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 03
Replace escape signage after twenty years
Photoluminescent signs are to be replaced twenty years after manufacture, unless a measurement on a representative sample shows luminescence at or above 80% of the original value under UNE 23035-2 and UNE 23035-4: in that case their life is extended in ten-year tranches, with a fresh measurement for each tranche. The measurement is made by a laboratory or an equipped company; it cannot be judged by eye. The count runs from the manufacturing date of the signs, which is often not the installation date.
every 240 months from installationLegal obligationRD 513/2017 (RIPCI) Anexo II; UNE 23035-2 y UNE 23035-4Spain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 04
Keep the emergency lighting test log
Every monthly and yearly test needs a line with date, outcome and any luminaires replaced: without a log, tests that were done cannot be told from tests that were not, and the first external check finds out. Keeping it is an organisational duty of the holder, who may delegate the writing to whoever runs the tests but not the responsibility. The annual review proposed here exists to compare the log with the luminaire layout and find the ones nobody has tested in years.
continuous check, confirm every 12 monthsCompany ruleRD 513/2017 (RIPCI) art. 21; UNE-EN 50172Spain only - 05
Run a yearly duration test on the luminaires
Once a year the luminaires are held in emergency mode for their full rated duration, checking that they reach the end still giving usable light: this is the test that finds aged batteries, which the monthly test does not see. It needs a moment when the building is empty, because afterwards the luminaires stay flat until they are fully recharged. This cadence too comes from UNE-EN 50172 and counts as practice: the REBT fixes the design autonomy, not the frequency of the test.
every 12 months since the last inspectionRecommendedUNE-EN 50172Spain only - 06
Review the photoluminescent signage yearly
Tabla III of RIPCI Anexo II calls for an annual review of photoluminescent signs: cleaning, legibility, the light they receive and the state of their fixings. It is one of the few RIPCI items about passive objects, which is exactly why it gets forgotten: a sign hidden behind a shelf or bleached by the sun sets off no alarm. The obligated party is the holder of the installation; the work does not require an authorised maintenance company.
every 12 months since the last inspectionLegal obligationRD 513/2017 (RIPCI) Anexo II, Tabla IIISpain onlySourceverified on 12/09/2026 - 07
Test the luminaires monthly
The test means simulating a mains failure and checking that each self-contained luminaire lights up and then returns to standby: it is done by eye, site staff can do it and no specialist firm is needed. The monthly cadence comes from UNE-EN 50172, a paid standard we have not read and that no Spanish text restates with a figure: it is settled industry practice, not a statutory deadline. Where the luminaires run their own self-test, read the result instead of forcing one.
every month since the last inspectionRecommendedUNE-EN 50172Spain only
In Portugal this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In United States this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
In Other country this product has no planned checks: the ones listed apply to other countries.
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