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Why Self-Test Emergency Lighting Is a Game-Changer for Building Safety
When it comes to fire safety, emergency lighting is often overlooked—but it plays a crucial role in saving lives. Whether it's a commercial office, warehouse, school or apartment block, reliable emergency lighting ensures occupants can safely evacuate in the event of a power failure. But how do you ensure it's actually working when you need it?
Regulatory Requirements for Emergency Lighting
It is a regulatory requirement for building operators to periodically test their emergency lighting. Function tests, to ensure the light illuminates, need to take place every month. A full duration test, to ensure the light remains illuminated for the stated duration, is required annually. The results of all tests need to be fully recorded and stored, meaning they are available if required by a third party, such as a fire officer or insurance company.
The time and effort required to complete manual testing can be problematic for busy maintenance teams who are often stretched due to facing a high number of other challenges on a daily basis. As emergency lighting is an essential part of a buildings life-safety system, it is essential to know that it is working correctly and the carrying out of these checks cannot be compromised.
The Challenges of Manual Testing
With a manual test system, every part of the testing process needs a person to intervene. This requires isolation of the mains power supply, typically with a key-switch. The area needs to be walked to check the connected emergency lighting within the space has illuminated, recording the results as they go. Once completed, the mains power is re-applied and the area needs to be walked again to check that power is reaching each individual luminaire, this is done by visual inspection of the charge-healthy indicator, again results need to be recorded.
How Self-Test Emergency Lighting Works
With a self-test system, it is far easier for maintenance and other personnel within the building to identify when faults occur.
As the name suggests, self-test systems are programmed to conduct regular checks of the light source and battery, as per the required regulations. If a fault is identified, the usual green ‘charge-healthy’ indicator either changes colour of flashes in a particular sequence, highlighting that there is a fault. This increased visual means that faults are effectively identified, reported and rectified.
The Role of Ongoing Human Inspections
It is important to note that monthly visual inspections of all emergency lighting fixtures need to continue and results must continue to be recorded by the maintenance team.
Self-test emergency lighting is not a fit and forget system. However, the process is much simpler, now it is just a case of an individual walking the building and visually inspecting that the charge-healthy indicators are in their appropriate state, recording the results as they go.
Conclusion: A Smart Move for Safety and Efficiency
Self-test emergency lighting offers a smarter way to meet regulatory demands. By automating diagnostics and flagging faults early, these systems reduce workload while improving reliability. However, regular visual checks remain essential to ensure holistic safety.
For building operators, adopting self-test solutions means safeguarding occupants and optimizing maintenance workflows—a win-win for compliance and peace of mind.
