Emergency Lighting
Emergency lighting provides illumination to enable safe movement of people along escape routes so that they can exit the building in emergency situations where the power to the local lighting circuits has failed.
Emergency lighting automatically activates in situations when the power to the general purpose lighting fails, such as when there is a mains power failure, or a local circuit breaker of fuse has disconnected the supply.
Emergency lighting should be connected to the local lighting circuits, so that it switches on when the local lighting is compromised, we have found many situations where although there is emergency lighting fitted, it is connected to the incorrect circuit/s and does not activated when the local lighting fails, this, of course is incorrect and would not allow for the emergency lighting to illuminate an escape route when it is meant to, this is also a contravention of the Emergency Lighting regulations BSEN 5266
Who needs emergency lighting?
All properties where the public have access, or where significant number of people are employed are required by law to provide such systems and ensure that they are suitably maintained and regularly tested.
A competent person or outside contractor should be given responsibility of the emergency lighting and should regularly check the system, and log these checks.
An outside contractor should be employed to conduct an annual three hour check of your emergency lighting system and verify that it illuminates for the full duration, they will also check that there is sufficient lighting, as lamps and bulbs deteriorate over time and produce less light as they deteriorate. Further to this they can advise you whether your emergency lighting still complies with BS5266 as the regulations get updated at regular intervals.
It is best to conduct the annual emergency lighting test at a convenient time when the building is unoccupied, and preferably at a time where it is unoccupied for 24 hours or more, that’s because it takes the batteries up to 24 hours to fully recharge after they have discharged for the full three-hour test.
The importance of reliability and effectiveness of your emergency lighting system requires that the design, installation and testing is carried out by a fully qualified and experienced engineer.
We provide our clients with solutions and advice suitable to their needs for emergency lighting, which would conform to all the relevant regulations.
