Emergency Lighting Testing

What is Emergency Lighting Testing?

Emergency Lighting is a legal requirement in all premises where people are employed.  It is a Life Safety System and is required to guide the occupants in the event of an emergency i.e. power failure or fire safely out of the building to designated meeting points.

It is not only the lighting that is mandatory but also the correct signage, this is over looked by my companies.

It is a mandatory requirement to comply with:

• BS 5266-1:2005 Code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises
• The Building regulations 2000            
• The Fire Precautions (workplace) regulations 1997   
• The Health And Safety (Safety Signs And Signals) Regulations 1996

Items to be tested

The emergency lighting system installed in your premises requires to be inspected and tested at the following intervals:

• Daily
• Monthly
• 6 Monthly
• Annual
  

We offer the inspection and testing for the 6 monthly and annual periods. This test is carried out for the full rated duration of your emergency lighting, normally 3 hours.

During this test we ensure the correct operation of the emergency lighting system, the correct location of the fittings and the correct signage is in place.

It is normal practice for the daily and monthly tests to be carried out by your in house maintenance staff.

Lighting

Specific locations where a luminaire must be provided are

At each exit door	All safety exit signs	Outside and near each final exit
Near stairs so that each tread receives direct light	At each change of direction	Near each first aid post
Near any other change of floor level	At each intersection of corridors	At each piece of fire fighting equipment and call point

Signage

To ensure that the exit signs are of correct format and size, Section 4.1 of BS5266 Pt 7 states that “Signs which are provided at all exits intended to be used in an emergency and along escape routes shall be illuminated to indicate unambiguously the route of escape to a point of safety”. Where direct sight of an emergency exit is not possible, an illuminated directional sign (or series of signs) shall be provided to assist progression towards the emergency exit.

The Sign formats below should not be mixed

	BS2560: 1975 Old-style signs now obsolete. Should have been replaced by December 1998
	BS 5499 Pt 1 Signs are still acceptable, if they are already in the building
	European Signs Directive Format This came into force on 1st April 1996, under The Signs Directive

Remedial Action

On completion of the test period a full detailed report will be supplied to you with any remedial costs as required to ensure that the emergency lighting system is fully maintained and working.

Certification and Reporting

During the Inspection and test all emergency lighting fittings will be labelled to help in identification with the full detailed report and Certification. This will be provided on paper format and on CD ROM in PDF format for ease of storage.

<< Back to Inspection and Testing