Emergency Lighting

[Mushy]

what's anyones opinion on a hospital not doing the monthly checks cos its so big and doing a 6 monthly one hour discharge test instead and then the usual annual test?...I know a lot could happen to units in between the 6 month test but is it feasible?

[Mike Buckley]

As I read it there are two types of test here. The monthly test is to ensure that the units are still working, bulbs ok, the things actually work etc. The annual test is to test the batteries to see whether they can still hold enough charge to last the specified time. So the proposed six month test does not fulfil the monthly test and is extra to the annual test so IMHO it is useless.

Without knowing the actual workings, I would suggest deligating the monthly test to the local staff who I assume carry out other routine checks (cleanliness, H&S etc.) and then carry out random tests to see if the tests are being carried out, the results recorded and the tests are accurate.

[kurnal]

what's anyones opinion on a hospital not doing the monthly checks cos its so big and doing a 6 monthly one hour discharge test instead and then the usual annual test?...I know a lot could happen to units in between the 6 month test but is it feasible?

Personally I dont think that idea works Mushy. Now if you have twice as many units as you need then it may be arguable that you will test them half as often (and provided there is sufficiently diverse wiring to ensure that one fault cannot affect all units in an area).

I think you should organise the task into small chunks- instead of all of them monthly you could do 25% of them weekly when you do the fire alarm tests,  or 3% of them daily?

[TickityBoo]

The Annual discharge test also involves "checking the charging arrangements for proper functioning" - for self contained units, how is this achieved?  I'm trying to figure out if annual tests can be done in house or is an electrician with some kind of electrical testing device required?

[AnthonyB]

I've never found any form do anything on the annual test that the user couldn't do themselves - to check the charger beyond seeing if the LED charging indicator comes back on once off test on self contained units would require disassembly in situ for testing or going back the next day to do a flick test to see if the battery packs had power in.

As long as it is safe & simple for the user to put fittings onto test (i.e. test switches fitted instead of fiddling around inside a consumer unit to isolate the right circuit) I can't see any reason why a user cannot do both monthly and annual tests as long as they have the time and the basic knowledge of what they are looking for - should a fitting not perform as expected then it's time for the sparks.

[Midland Retty]

Mushy

I go along with the general consensus that the emergency lighting should be checked monthly

As already suggested carve them up into manageable chunks. In one hospital I deal with regularly part of the role of the security guards at night is to check the emergency lighting. They do it on their rounds when its quiet late at night / early in the morning.