26/11/2020
With all that has happened in 2020 and the workforce leaving, returning and then maybe even leaving again, things like emergency lighting maintenance might have slipped under the radar. Whether you staff are in or out of the office, it’s still important to keep up with this essential electrical maintenance, in order to ensure both legal compliance and electrical safety. While it may have been difficult to get a professional to carry out the necessary testing during the peak of the pandemic, our team are now back and offering our maintenance surveys, of course abiding to social distancing.
Yearly Requirements
Once a year a full test of all emergency lighting by a professional emergency lighting maintenance company is required, to ensure that the units would operate as needed in a real emergency. This test is carried out according to the current requirements in the BS5266 AND EN50172 which outline the minimum requirements that emergency lighting must live up too in order to protect the business and its work force from hazards.
Monthly Testing
Aside from the once a year legal emergency lighting maintenance, businesses should carry out monthly tests themselves, to test their systems in accordance with the guidelines. To do this, a short functional test is needed which involves manufacturing a period of simulated failure, to identify that the battery back-up is working adequately. The test shouldn’t be long enough to impose damage on the system but should be short enough to check the batteries capabilities, assess all the luminaires and remove and obstructions that might be present.