The Importance of Testing Exit Signs & Emergency Light

Jun. 17, 2024

The Importance of Testing Exit Signs & Emergency Light

Testing and maintenance of emergency lighting and exit signs are essential for workplace safety. Maintaining these units can be crucial for helping your personnel safely navigate to other work areas or outside in emergencies. Facility managers and supervisors should understand the role of emergency and exit lighting and the importance of testing and keeping these units in order.

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Finding the Way Out

In an emergency, personnel and guests may need to find an exit or safe place within the workplace quickly. In the case of a power outage, visible exit signs and backup emergency lighting can help guide people throughout the facility.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) mandates exit signs to be visible from no more than 100 feet or the listed viewing distance of the exit sign. The NFPA also requires these signs in all 'egress paths,' including ceiling height and continuous width. A lot of exit signs are lit by incandescent bulbs. As a business owner, you ought to consider an emergency and exit lighting that's internally wired into emergency backup power, which provides continuous lighting in the event of a power outage. However, internally wired backup power may not be available in many cases, so business owners should consider sources of readily available replacement batteries for any battery-backed units.

Testing and Maintaining

To properly maintain these units, business owners should consider these steps:

1. 30 Day Visual inspections - This inspection is done once every 30 days. Checking for loose or exposed wiring and securing it (frayed wiring is itself a fire hazard and loose wiring can be accidentally snagged and lead to further damage). Ensure that exit signs and emergency lights are securely mounted to the wall or ceiling. Look for any cracks or blemishes in the housing because cracked outdoor units may need to be replaced due to water seepage issues. Consider installing protective guards and shields to protect these units from physical damage.

2. Functional inspections - These units should undergo several functional tests on a monthly or yearly basis. These tests are created to check for damage to the lights' exterior and verify that the lights are functioning.

There are two types of testing mechanisms in most equipment: equipment that needs to be manually tested (i.e., by pushing and holding down the 'Test Button' on the unit) and equipment designated as 'self testing' (i.e., has built-in circuitry that can perform the 30 second monthly and 90 minute annual tests).

Manual testing equipment requires you to find the 'push-to-test' button that interrupts AC power and engages the backup battery. Exit signs should stay illuminated, and emergency lighting should turn on. Hold the button for 30 seconds, observing that the illumination stays on for the full 30 seconds.

Self-testing equipment is ideal for facilities with a large number of units. It has a 'push-to-test' button and a diagnostic LED that illuminates to convey test results. The button should be pressed two times to activate the 30-second test. After a while, examine the LED tell-tale. Steady green indicates normal service, while red indicates a failure of some sort. You can also set the units to perform a 30-second battery test every 30 days automatically.

3. Record Keeping - Keep written records of testing and maintenance for further review. For any unit that was not tested, document the unit's location and a reason for the lack of testing.

Conclusion

In the event of an emergency in your facility, would your personnel or guests know where the nearest emergency exit would be? Making sure your personnel and visitors feel safe in your facility is extremely important.

Keep written records of visual inspections and tests using effective solutions like The Checker.

Self-Testing LED Emergency Lights - Sanforce Tech

With the use of LED emergency lights, businesses are currently maximizing the usage period of light illumination that allows work continuity along with the reduction of energy bills.

The testing of such an LED emergency light system is important to ensure that everything is working as it should. It is not difficult to perform tests on individual LED emergency light bulbs but the inspection of the entire installation is very labor-intensive and costly.

In the market, self-testing LED emergency lights are available with automatic testing functions. They reduce the burden of testing LED emergency light installations.

In this article, we will discuss self-testing LED emergency lights, how they work, and the benefits of using them.

So, let&#;s get started.

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What is Self-Testing LED Emergency Light?

A self-testing LED emergency light is an LED emergency light that is able to automatically check whether its LED lamp and battery are operating normally or not by themselves.

If the system detects a problem, it will display a visual warning and produce a sound for the warning signal.

The self-testing feature of this type of LED emergency light replaces the manual tests required to be performed monthly and annually. Since there is no need for manual tests to be carried out, a self-testing LED emergency light system is a cost-effective solution for businesses.

Such lighting systems come up with intelligent warning technology that can indicate the type of problem detected in the system. So, the problem can be solved accordingly as quickly as possible.

Also, such self-testing lighting systems have easy initial swap or installation which makes them effective to meet regulations regarding fire safety.

How Self-Testing Emergency Light Works

The self-testing emergency light product comes with an automatic and self-test feature that is able to perform tests by itself complying with the requirements of the British standards.

Generally, the monthly tests of 10 minutes and yearly tests of 3 hours will be carried out automatically in addition to checking the condition of battery charge and other things.

When you install a self-testing emergency light product, the internal clock of the luminaire randomly assigns the date for the first month and first yearly test.

The first monthly test will generally be carried out between 16 and 30 days from the day of installation and then the monthly test will be carried out every 30 days.

The first yearly test will generally be carried out between 200 and 360 days from the day of installation and then the yearly test will be carried out every 360 days.

In case, no power is supplied to the self-testing emergency light product, the schedule of tests to be carried out will be remembered by the system generally for a period of 7 days.

Benefits of Using Self-Testing Emergency Lights

1. Self-testing emergency light reduces the burden of testing. Also, the self-test is more reliable and effective than manual testing.

2. It is easy to install self-test emergency light products.

3. It is cost-effective and also saves time.

4. The automatic self-test doesn&#;t disrupt the normal operation of the businesses.

5. With staggered tests, all business locations are protected when there is a power outage.

Conclusion

Self-testing LED emergency lights will be a great solution for the emergency lighting needs of your business. Since it uses LED, you are able to reduce the energy bills & the self-test feature will reduce the burden of manual testing.

You can utilize the time that you have to invest in manual testing in your other important business works. Also, the self-test LED emergency lights system might be higher but their payback period is very short.

For self-testing LED emergency lights and other emergency lighting products, request a quote from Sanforce Technology &#; A leading manufacturer and distributor of quality and cost-effective emergency lighting products.

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