Life safety systems comprising of fire alarms and Emergency lighting must be correctly installed and routinely maintained.
Most commonly required in business premises, high rise buildings and homes of multiple occupancy, emergency lighting is critical to the safety of staff and residents
Used in escape routes of buildings to provide sufficient light levels to allow people to safely exit the premises when the lighting circuit fails.
Types Of Emergency Lighting
Maintained – This type of fitting can either be used to be constantly illuminated by wiring to the permanently live side of the lighting circuit, or can be wired through a light switch to work as a normal light fitting.
Non-Maintained – This type of fitting does not illuminate under normal conditions
Both maintained and non-maintained fittings incorporate a backup battery with a charging circuit. During a power failure of the lighting circuit the light will illuminate using the backup battery. The most common rating of emergency light fittings is 3 hours, which means the battery should keep the light illuminated for 3 hours during a power failure. When mains power is restored the fitting automatically reverts to normal operation and the battery is recharged.
Maintenance of Emergency Lighting Systems
Monthly Checks
The emergency lighting should be tested by the responsible person at monthly intervals. This is done by doing a flick test. As the name suggests a flick test is done by turning off the power to the lighting circuit at the key switch and checking that all emergency lights illuminate. There is no requirement for this test so once all fittings have been checked the power can be turned back on. The result of the check must be documented in the fire safety log book and any failures reported as soon as practically possible.
An short video of the above practice can be found here:
Annual Checks
The emergency lighting must be maintained at annual intervals. During this test the emergency lights must be tested by a competent person for the duration of the emergency light rating. i.e. a 3 hour rated fitting must be drained for 3 hours to ensure the fitting lasts for the full duration, a 2 hour fitting must be drained for 2 hours etc. If the fitting does not last for the duration it will be classed as a failure, resulting in either replacement of the battery pack or whole fitting.
We would ordinarily tie the 3 hour maintenance in with the fire alarm and extinguisher maintenance, this enables us to provide a saving onto the client as we can test the alarm and extinguishers whilst already on site conducting the lighting test.
It is common practice to test the emergency lights during the 6 monthly fire alarm maintenance, this test would be for a shorter duration normally 1 hour or less.
Suffolk fire and security can install and maintain your emergency lighting systems. We will take care of your requirements through the whole life cycle, from initial design, through to ongoing planned preventative maintenance visits.
Having all of your systems maintained by one provider makes the management of properties simpler.
For all of your life safety system needs contact Suffolk fire and security, and allow us to provide you with peace of mind, knowing that they are in good hands, ensuring that they do exactly as required when needed
