Why Should You Test Your Emergency Lights
All places of work are required to provide adequate method of escape, and these routes and exits must be properly covered by emergency lighting, so that there’re visible even in an electrical cut. In the GREAT BRITAIN these requirements come beneath the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Purchase 2005, which places a duty for the ‘Responsible Person’ to ensure these measures are in place.
The nature in addition to extent of emergency lighting will vary with numerous premises, and the time that this lighting is required to remain seated on for could often be between one and several hours. The basic function of this is so that there is certainly enough lighting to get everyone safely right out the building in an crisis, but the longer the lighting last the greater. In order to ensure that the lighting is functioning properly and able to last as long as it needs to, the emergency lighting system need to be tested regularly.
Some of the more modern systems will allow you to testing themselves, but virtually all buildings will have more mature emergency lighting which demands manual testing. How this is done is determined by the system in area, but the usual method should be to use a special switch which includes a ‘fishtail key’ to trigger the lighting.
The best way in order to organise your testing shall be systematic about it and keep a precise record in a logbook. You must carry out different lab tests at regular intervals, daily, monthly, six monthly plus annually. Daily checking is advised for premises with retained lighting (emergency lights which stay on all the time). This just has to be a visual check to confirm they are all doing the job, and deal with any which are not.
A monthly check should include cutting the electricity to all lighting, just so all non-maintained bulbs (ones which only come on in a power cut) will work. If you do not have access to a testing facility that has a fish key, you are capable of doing this through your blend box.
Every six months it may be beneficial to cut the power for one or more hour to ensure that batteries last long enough. At least once every year it’s important to carry out a ‘full discharge test’ which involves cutting off the power and letting the whole system discharge. It is preferable to acquire a qualified electrical engineer to achieve this and check the whole system at the same time. When you carry out the full discharge test, you should time this so your premises are not being used for the following 24 hours, as the batteries will probably all be drained and the emergency lighting therefore definitely not working.
You should utilize a special form to record each time you carry out an experiment. There are forms available online free which you can download. The form should record the date with the test, the result from the test, any remedial action you have taken, and a signature in the person carrying out test. Your local fire authority has the suitable to check whether that you’re properly testing and retaining your emergency lighting program, so keeping a logbook with these records in could be very helpful when this happens.
Shenzhen Yuanheng is a professional electronic ballast manufacturer from China who specialized in manufacturing lighting products and other new industrial products for more than 15 years. Our business covers emergency lighting, electronic ballast, ITO plastic films, EL panels, many other industrial products, and new materials.
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