Understanding manual testing
Manual testing consists of breaking the supply to a section of emergency lighting and visually checking the light output at the start and end of the expected duration. An engineer must visually inspect each luminaire for damage or any impairment of the desired light. Once completed, all results must be logged and maintenance scheduled for any failures found.
Commercial buildings such as student accommodation blocks, office premises or hospitals employ many people while also accommodating members of the public. It would not be unusual for them to have over 1,000 emergency lighting fixtures installed, which must all be maintained, cleaned, visually inspected, tested, and recorded into the building log book. These are all legal requirements to ensure the safety of the occupants in times of evacuation.
However, manual testing can be disruptive to employees and an engineer must be available out of hours to conduct tests during a period of low risk, ideally when the building is unoccupied.
Automatic testing systems offer a solution. But being a critical part of the fire safety risk assessment, organisations can’t simply shirk their responsibilities on emergency lighting tests. Instead, they need to be vigilant in streamlining tasks even in older buildings where testing is not as quick, or as easy.