Emergency Lighting Testing
Professional inspection and duration testing to ensure your escape routes remain illuminated, safe, and compliant during a power failure.
Service Overview
At Greensurv, we provide comprehensive emergency lighting testing to ensure that your building’s life safety systems never leave you in the dark. In the event of a fire or a sudden mains power failure, emergency lighting is the primary guide for occupants to evacuate safely and for emergency services to navigate the premises. Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, it is a legal requirement for business owners and landlords to maintain these systems in full working order. Our expert technicians perform rigorous "soak tests" and functional checks to verify that every battery-backed light, exit sign, and escape route luminaire activates instantly and stays lit for its required duration. We help you eliminate the risk of panic and injury by ensuring your "path to safety" is always visible, even in the most critical moments.
Statutory Functional and Duration Testing
Emergency lights must do more than just turn on; they must stay on long enough for a full evacuation and for emergency services to enter. Our testing protocols at Greensurv follow the strict BS 5266-1 code of practice to verify battery health and circuit integrity.
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Verifying that every luminaire switches from mains to battery power instantly upon failure.
Draining the batteries completely to ensure they meet the 180-minute legal runtime requirement.
Checking for flickering, dimming, or dead LEDs and bulbs across all emergency units.
Identifying aging or faulty batteries that can no longer hold a sufficient charge for emergencies.
For modern buildings, we audit digital monitoring systems to ensure they are logging faults correctly.
Strategic Placement and Compliance Review
It’s not just about the lights working; it’s about having the right amount of light in the right places. We assess your building’s layout to ensure that high-risk areas and change of directions are sufficiently illuminated according to UK safety standards.
Checking that stairwells, intersections, and floor level changes meet minimum "lux" requirements.
Ensuring fire alarm panels and manual call points are clearly visible in total darkness.
Verifying that the lighting extends to the external "place of ultimate safety" or assembly point.
Ensuring "Running Man" exit signs are correctly placed and can be seen from all angles of a room.
Digitally documenting every test result into your Fire Safety Logbook for legal proof of compliance.
Key Benefits
Legal & Insurance Compliance
Adhere to BS 5266-1 standards to avoid fines and ensure your building insurance remains valid in the event of an incident.
Proactive Maintenance
Identifying "near-fail" batteries early allows for planned replacements, avoiding the higher costs of emergency repairs.
Prevents Panic
Bright, reliable escape lighting reduces the risk of trips, falls, and crowd panic during a dark, smoke-filled evacuation.
Duty of Care Fulfillment
Demonstrate a high level of responsibility toward your employees, tenants, and visitors.
Our Process
STEP 01
Site Survey & Asset Mapping
We identify every emergency light on your premises at Greensurv, creating a unique ID for each unit to track its history and performance.
STEP 02
Controlled Power Isolation
Our technicians safely isolate the lighting circuits to simulate a total power failure, triggering the emergency battery backup mode.
STEP 03
Monitoring & Measurement
We monitor the system for the required 3-hour duration, checking for any units that fail prematurely or provide insufficient light.
STEP 04
Certification & Remedial Advice
You receive a detailed "Pass/Fail" report for every light. If a unit fails, we provide a clear quote for replacement to bring you back to compliance.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should emergency lighting be tested?
A simple functional test should be done monthly (usually by the site manager), but a full 3-hour duration test is a legal requirement once a year.
What is a "3-hour" test?
It is a test where the mains power is cut for 3 full hours. Most UK fire regulations require emergency lights to last this long to allow for evacuation and fire service intervention.
Do you test emergency lighting during business hours?
Yes, we can. However, because the batteries will be drained after a test, we often recommend testing when the building is empty so the batteries have time to recharge.
What happens if a light fails the test?
A fail means the building is not compliant. At Greensurv, we highlight these as "critical" and recommend an immediate battery or unit replacement.
Is the "Running Man" sign considered part of emergency lighting?
Yes. Any internally illuminated exit sign must be tested as part of the emergency lighting system to ensure it stays lit during a power cut.