The Brighter Choice
Emergency Lighting Testing How Often?
BS 5266 requires a short functional test every month and an annual 3-hour test. We offer 3 ways to test emergency lighting:
Manual testing
A key-switch is used to disconnect the permanent live supply from the emergency fitting. When disconnected the fitting switches to battery operation. It is necessary to observe the fitting to check it is working correctly and for the required duration.
Manual testing is ideal for small installations, but the burden of record keeping and remembering to do the test every month will be impractical for larger buildings.
All the fittings shown below are available in manual test versions.
Self-test
Some fittings carry out their own test without human intervention or the need for a key-switch and the associated wiring. A self-testing emergency fitting is autonomous; it operates on its own without any communication with neighbouring fittings or a central control point. A tri-colour LED will indicate if the fitting is working correctly (green) or if it has an LED fault (yellow) or a battery fault (red).
Self-test has great advantages:
The self-test versions of our emergency lighting products can be ordered as follows:
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Order Code |
Description |
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NAL/STM3 |
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NLE/STM3 |
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NSC/SURF/STNM3 |
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Addressable self-test
For larger sites we recommend an addressable self-test system. Addressable self-test emergency luminaires are all connected together and to a central point on a communications bus (usually DALI) and each fitting has a unique address.
Periodically, the central controller will command each emergency luminaire to start a test sequence and report the results back to the central controller.
We work with several leading suppliers of this specialized equipment and we will propose solutions that we consider to be most appropriate for a particular client or project.
EURO LEGENDS
The European Signs Directive calls for the following legends, which are sometimes called “Euro legends”. They are easily distinguished by their use of an image of a man running towards a door. This is the style of legend supplied as standard with all our LED exit sign fittings.
The three Euro legends in common use are:
The European Signs Directive is not explicit concerning the use of either an up or down-arrow to indicate “straight ahead”. Both are acceptable, but we supply the arrow-down legend as standard.
ISO7010 & BS5266
These 2 standards both use a single set of legends, sometimes referred to as “ISO7010” legends. They are easily distinguished by their use of an image of a man running through a door. These legends are available as optional extras with all our LED exit signs fittings.
There are three ISO7010 legends in common use:
Note that ISO7010 and BS5266 are explicit that “straight ahead” is to be indicated with an up-arrow.
