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Emergency Light Testing

Emergency Lighting is designed to illuminate exit routes in the event of an emergency or simply when the mains power source drops, guiding the way to a safe exit route for occupants inside the building.

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Emergency Lighting is a Legal Responsibility:

Employers and commercial building managers are legally required to comply with a number of regulations designed to protect building occupants against health and safety risks.

In addition to the laws shown on the right, the British Standards BS 5266-1 is the umbrella standard which outlines the code of practice for emergency lights.

Emergency lighting is covered by various pieces of legislation and regulations including:

Building Regulations 2000 which define the size of rooms that must have emergency lighting
Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) 2005 (Statutory) – England & Wales
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (Statutory)

UK laws and regulations for Emergency Lighting

Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order:

The responsible person may be the employer, the building owner or the occupier
The responsible person must carry out a full risk assessment
The building must always be safe. If occupants are to remain on site during a supply failure, they require suitable protection
Compliance to BS 5266-1:2016 (Code of Practice for the emergency lighting of premises) is required
Compliance to BS 5839-6:2019 (Code of Practice for fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings) is required
Fire and rescue services remain the enforcing authority
Failure to comply is an offence and can result in a fine or imprisonment.

Maintenance Negligence

Recent surveys from sources such as the Lux Review reveal some uncomfortable information:

More than 50% of emergency lighting schemes won’t work in an incident

70% of building managers see maintenance as a ‘tick box’ exercise

56% of businesses fail to keep their safety systems up to date after an internal refurbishment

Electricians reported 64% of visited sites’ emergency lighting logbooks are not up to date

Consequences of non compliance

Not complying with the law can result in fines of £100,000s or businesses being forcibly closed and prison sentences.

Landlord fined £50,000 over lack of emergency lighting

A Hertfordshire landlord was fined £50,000 for the lack of emergency lighting at two rented properties.

£400,000 fine over lack of emergency lighting

A landlord was fined a record £0.4M over the lack of emergency lighting & other breaches of fire and health and safety legislation.

Hotelier fined £50,000 over emergency lighting

A Yorkshire hotel owner was fined £50,000 for fire safety offences, including a failure to monitor and maintain emergency lighting.

Why you NEED Emergency Lighting

Simply put, without adequate Emergency Lighting, you'll be left in the dark when an emergency occurs or the power in your premises fails.

If your Emergency Lighting isn't fit for purpose and readily available when it is needed to illuminate areas of your building, you will be in breach of the The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

That is where we come in, we have a team of fire safety experts that are ready and waiting to install, replace, repair and of course, test all of your Emergency Lighting systems.

We have one very simple goal - ensuring that you remain compliant with all of your maintenance obligations. Your Emergency Light Testing being a critical part of your overall safety and maintenance requirements.

What does it involve?

We keep your lighting systems in full working order by testing all components, including switches, batteries, luminaries and control equipment.

We will always arrange a maintenance schedule ahead of time to best suit your working day.

Our engineers will be able to determine whether or not you need a 1 hour or 3 hour test. Whilst always assessing the placement of emergency lights, to ensure that they’re placed in the best possible location for illumination.

Different types of emergency light testing can be broken down into abbreviations such as the following:

M3 - Maintained, emergency duration - 3 hours

NM2 - Non-maintained, emergency duration - 2 hours

S1 - Sustained System, emergency duration - 1 hour

When testing an emergency lighting system, a mains power failure should be simulated. This will force the emergency lighting system to operate via the battery supply.

Our head engineer in action.

How Emergency Lighting will improve the safety of your premises

If tested and maintained to the right standard, Emergency Lighting will be fully operational and provide illumination to a sufficiently high level, thus enabling all occupants to safely evacuate the premises in the unfortunate event of an emergency situation.