Posted By Dave Stevenson We currently undertake a full test (via a contractor) of our emergency lighting every 6 months. Some local fire authorities have asked that we test it every month, which will involve store managers undertaking the test. To my knowledge, whilst this would be good practice (British Standard), and it is not a legal requirement. I am concerned because the lighting we have in store does not allow (at the moment) a visual check to determine if the emergency lighting is working and I do not want store managers going into electrical cupboards to perform this test. Any thoughts?

Posted By Phillipe This issue of testing is and has been an issue I have had on a number of occasions and it is a pain in the preverbial especially when you are a large chain of high street shops. I have never had any consistency when dealing with EHO's and Fire Officers and more so the H&S Personnel of large shopping centres....they all seem to want something different. One way of dealing with it is to have a fische key type of switch installed to test the emergency lighting that simply turns them on at the throw of a switch and locate it away from the electrical DB or cupboard? This would allow the store management or their deuputy to simply and safely test it on a weekly, monthly or annual basis depending on the standard you set or are advised to set by the enforcing authority.

Posted By shaun mckeever Dave, BS5266 recommends that emergency lighting be tested regularly. It recommends that the units are tested monthly by what is known as a flick test. Basically all you need to do for the monthly test is flick the emergency light switch on, check the light is working and then swicth it off again. It is a very easy test and only takes a few seconds. The test switches are normally in an easily accessible location, often a 'fish' switch adjacent to the main switch. The six monthly test is different and requires a percentage of the emergency lights to be discharged for a period, normally an hour. Emergency lighting is considered more important than a detection system. Can you imagine being in the basement area of a large building when a fire causes a failure in the electrical supply. You may hear the fire alarm operating but if your emergency lighting has failed you will be in total darkness trying to find your way out.