Lighting & Electricals

TIME TO BE ‘SELF’ CONSCIOUS

While emergency lighting is a necessary element of the wiring systems of any public building, self-test units are not; yet they offer many advantages in respect of the building owner or operator’s duty of care. Scott Brewer, Head of Technical at Knightsbridge, reports.

Emergency lighting systems are a statutory requirement under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which places a duty of care on building owners of non-domestic premises to ensure the safety of everyone on the premises whether a resident, employee or visitor. The provision for emergency escape lighting – which shows the way out in the event of an electrical supply failure – is spelt out in Section 14.2 (h): “Emergency routes and exits requiring illumination must be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in the case of failure of their normal lighting.”

What is not proscribed is the maintenance and inspection of these systems, despite the fact that all emergency escape lighting systems should be regularly tested and properly maintained to an appropriate standard. Testing and maintenance is described in BS 5266-1: 2016 Code of Practice for Emergency Lighting. As implied by the title, the code is not mandatory yet compliance with it provides an automatic, ‘state-of-the-art’ defence in the case of problems with emergency escape lighting.

Obviously, existing emergency systems can be manually tested but this is labour intensive and prone to omission or error. Furthermore, BS 5266-1: 2016 calls for a function test once a month and that an annual full-rated duration discharge is performed and logged for all emergency lighting installations. Inevitably, the costs of employing an engineer to do this can be prohibitive. And it’s not just the cost of an engineer, but the hidden costs of downtime, loss of productivity and inconvenience to building users or staff.

Thus, it is prudent now to source modern systems that have self-testing facilities that reduce routine checks to a minimum. Typically, a routine test would involve the following:

Turn off the local supply

Daily visual check of any central controls

A monthly function test by operating the test facility (key switches) for a period sufficient to ensure that each emergency lamp illuminates

Turn the mains supply back on and check that the luminaires are charging

An annual full discharge test.

It is good practice to record all results in an emergency test schedule report. Emergency lighting fitted with self-testing control gear, which can perform some of these actions, is clearly beneficial. As the name implies, an emergency light fitted with self-testing control gear can carry out the mandatory tests in accordance with national legislation, then report back the results via LED indicators, and, in some cases, an audible alarm. Importantly, all faults will continue to be indicated until they are rectified.

Therefore, the building owner or facilities manager now only has to check the LED status indicators and record the results on the test schedule.

This results in a less labourintensive testing procedure, leading to lower costs, on the initial cost of installation (especially if you have a large complex building), as these also perform the required commissioning checks.

In addition to the reduced labour required to perform monthly checks, self-test luminaires also have the added benefits of:

Reducing human error in tests

Instant fault indication

Self-diagnosis identifies any component failure

No more delays in testing, as it can be carried out within normal business hours.

At Knightsbridge, our own self-test emergency lighting products offer the same all-important considerations of convenience, compliance, cost savings and ease of fault identification. It’s a comprehensive, LED-powered range, which is ideal for retail, commercial, industrial and HMO applications, and comprises a robust bulkhead unit, a contemporary downlight, highlumen twin spotlights and two lightweight exit signs.

When it comes to emergency lighting, our range of self-test luminaires puts safety first, while requiring minimum manual intervention post installation, therefore, keeping costs down.  www.mlaccessories.co.uk