Light Up Your Safety Plan: The Necessity of Emergency Lighting Inspections

Emergency lighting systems are installed to provide assistance in evacuating a building in the event of loss of supply to the general lighting circuits through fire for instance. The Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1997 state that “Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in case lighting fails”. It is the responsibility of all employers to ensure that these systems are suitably maintained and checked to ensure they are safe and compliant. All emergency lighting systems should now be installed, tested and inspected in accordance with BS5266-1.

Who is responsible?

Realistically, everybody has a duty to ensure the safety of others whilst at work; however, your employer will have ultimate responsibility for electrical safety. If nobody at your place of work is clear on who is responsible, then the responsibility falls on the most senior person. It is important to know who has the responsibility for safety and welfare of staff in order to establish that compliance is achieved.

What does it involve?

Emergency lighting test and inspection requires that every circuit supplying an emergency light is isolated to demonstrate that the internal battery in the emergency fittings keeps the exits illuminated during power failure. Every 12 months a 3 hour run down test is performed to ensure the battery is capable of doing so for the desired period.

Each light is inspected to ensure it operates correctly and that the lamp inside is sound. Furthermore the inspecting engineer will ensure that there are a sufficient number of lights and that the correct evacuation legends are fitted.

Who should do the work?

It is recommended that in BS 5266-8, that a ‘competent person’ should be appointed to supervise servicing.

ETM Electrical Test Midlands offers a range of testing and certification services to support customers in managing compliance around electrical safety for new and existing installations.

For further information, call 01922 710014 or visit www.electricaltestmidlands.com for more advice