Emergency lighting tests.

[Tom Sutton]

Please could you clarify a number issues with regard to the monthly emergency lighting tests? We moved into a small office about 6 months which has ground, 1st floor and 2nd floor offices with approximately 30 personnel employed throughout the building.
 
We have emergency lighting fitted which we have been testing by using the local isolation switch and operating the emergency lighting in that area by using a 'fish' key. Because we are a busy office we test each area on a separate basis for 1/2 hour duration.
 
The system will be checked on annual basis by a competent engineer.
 
The issues we require clarification are:
 
1. Should all the areas be tested at the same time?
2. How do you know if the system is charging correctly? Should the small indicator lamp on the luminaries show green /red?

Unfortunately I only have BS 5266:1: 1999 and very little practical knowledge so because I do not wish to give duff information could the experts out there help me.

[colin todd]

Hey Tw, the definition of competence includes recognition of one's own ability (HSE).

1. Yes it can be. Or you could do one floor each week in rotation if you wanted to.
2. Assuming it has no automatic test facilities, red will be the older type and green the newer. Both meaning the same thing. This follows the principle that its best to keep people confused as it makes work for others to resolove the confusion.
There is no reason to test for 30 minutes. Its a waste of time. The purpose of the functional test is just to make sure the fitting works. People often colloquially refer to it as a "flick" test, as they just flick it off and on to check the fittings work.

ps bs 5266-1:1999 was superseded in December 2005, and in any case you need parts 7 and 8 to properly specify a system.

[Tom Sutton]

Colin it’s not so much competence it’s not being able to afford BS prices.

The response to the questions straight to the point, Thanks! I will leave it a couple of days to see if there are any dissenters.

[David Rooney]

Colin it’s not so much competence it’s not being able to afford BS prices.

Spot on... why have one BS "Part" when you can have a dozen.... and a dozen guides......

......Shake your money maker......!!!

[Galeon]

TW ,
What I would check out for peace of mind is that the emergencies fittings are wired correctly , what I mean by that is they are wired locally off a phase(s) . Ie if you are fed by 3 phase you and your lighting is wired on different phases that the emergencies are distributed accordingly on said phases .
What you don't want to find is that your lighting is one phase and your emergencies are on another , so you could loose two incoming phases and have no emergencies kicking in when you need them.
Obviously if you are on a single phase you wont have the above problem , just need to look at the arrangement , so it might be better to turn off all your lighting breakers and see if your emergency fittings respond.
Then you can do a flick test as above and be totally confident.

[AnthonyB]

Design & maintenance guides based on the BS series are freely available from the major players in the alarm & lighting industry & are a useful resource for the user/specifier.

If you are in the business of design & installation then the actual BS standards are essential.

If you subscribe to the various online reference libraries such as IHS you can get all the standards as part of the subscription which is how we do it.

[Tom Sutton]

Anthony I do have some of the guides you speak of and I am not a business of any kind I simple try to help Joe public regarding fire safety. The only monies I get are a small amount from my sponsor to buy any essential BS standards but they seem to update them on a weekly basis. At £3000 a year for IHS is totally out of the question.

Galeon I was told the system will be checked on annual basis by a competent engineer so hopefully the points you highlighted would be dealt with by him.

This is why I am member of this forum, the help I get is invaluable.

[Tom Sutton]

Thanks everybody for your help.