Emergency Lighting
It is vital that emergency lighting comes on if the normal lighting fails. It needs to be sufficiently bright, illuminated for enough time, and the light sources so positioned that the staff and visitors of a building can be evacuated safely in an emergency.
Regular maintenance of emergency lighting and fire alarms is essential, to ensure correct operation when an emergency occurs, and compliance with current regulations and insurance requirements. Any faults discovered during maintenance should be recorded in an Emergency Lighting Logbook; this forms part of your Fire Risk Assessment.
BS 5266 is the British Standard for Emergency Lighting, all installations should be installed and maintained inline with these standards.
Our engineers carry out work on emergency lighting systems on a daily basis; our services include providing advice on compliance with current regulations, risk assessments and servicing and maintenance visits.
BS 5266-1:2005 Emergency lighting. Code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises.
BS 5266 recommends a test procedure. The key points of which are shown below:
User Checks
- DAILY:Check indicator light and that all maintained luminaires are operating. Check that any previously recorded fault has been rectified. Record any faults.
- MONTHLY:In addition to the daily test procedures you must simulate a mains failure of no more than ¼ of the rated duration.
Engineer Tests
- SIX MONTHLY:In addition to the monthly test procedures you must simulate a mains failure for a continuous period of one hour.
- THREE YEARLY:In addition to carrying out the monthly test procedures you must simulate a mains failure for the full rated duration of the luminaire. Each emergency lighting installation should be tested and inspected to ascertain compliance with BS5266 Part I.
For self contained systems test yearly for the full duration.
During each test, the lights should be checked for correct operation. After testing, the supply should be restored and then checked to ensure the system is charging correctly. A detailed test schedule and test reports are listed in BS 5266.
