Fire safety · Greater Manchester
Emergency lighting installation and testing
Escape routes have to stay lit when the mains fails. We install, test and certificate emergency lighting to BS 5266-1, on the same visit schedule as your fire alarm.
The service
The duty everyone forgets until the duration test fails
Emergency lighting is the most commonly neglected duty we find on first visits. Batteries age quietly: a luminaire that lights up on a flick test can still fail ten minutes into a real outage. BS 5266-1 asks for a brief monthly function test and a full-rated duration test, normally three hours, every year, all recorded.
On a bundled contract our engineers do the lighting checks during the fire alarm visit, so there is no second contractor, no second schedule and no gap between the two systems that everyone assumes the other firm covered.
This is pure electrical work, which is the family trade. New installations, conversions of existing fittings, replacement of failed batteries and luminaires, and remedials from a failed test are all done in-house by the same team.
From enquiry to certificate
No sales visit and no three-week wait to find out what it costs. Tell us your deadline and the dates are planned back from it.
Form or phone. We ask for the postcode, the premises type and any deadline you are working to.
An engineer walks the building, counts the devices, checks the panel and the logbook, and notes what is missing.
A written figure for the contract, plus a separate price for anything that needs putting right first.
Certificate, logbook entries and priced defects, emailed to you within 48 hours.
Common questions
How often does emergency lighting need to be tested?
A short function test every month and a full-rated duration test, usually three hours, once a year, both recorded.
The monthly test proves the fitting switches over; the annual test proves the battery lasts. Duration tests are best done when the building can tolerate the recharge period afterwards, so we schedule them for late in the working day or around your operations.
Who can test emergency lighting?
A competent person. In practice that means someone with electrical competence, test equipment and knowledge of BS 5266-1 who records results properly.
A caretaker flicking the test key switch is fine for the monthly check if it is logged. Annual duration testing and any remedial work should sit with a contractor, because failures usually mean battery or luminaire replacement on live circuits.
Do I need emergency lighting in a small workplace?
Almost certainly yes on escape routes, and your fire risk assessment will say so.
The requirement scales with the building: open-plan ground-floor units may need only a few fittings at exits and direction changes. We quote from a walk-round rather than a formula, so small premises are not sold enterprise systems.
Better bundled: this service costs less and works harder inside a planned maintenance contract covering alarm, lighting, extinguishers and risk assessment together.
Get a contract priceEmergency lighting questions
Still unsure? Call 07703 295654 and ask an engineer directly.
How often must emergency lighting be tested?
A short function test every month and a full-rated duration test, normally three hours, once a year, both recorded. The requirements come from BS 5266-1. The annual duration test is the one most often skipped, because it takes the lights out of service while they recharge.
What is a duration test and why does it matter?
The supply is isolated and the luminaires must stay lit for their rated duration, usually three hours. It is the only test that proves the batteries will last a real evacuation. A monthly flick test proves the lamp lights, not that it will still be lit twenty minutes into an incident.
What happens if a luminaire fails the test?
It is recorded as a fail on the certificate with a priced remedial, and we tell you whether it is the battery, the lamp or the charging circuit. Failures cluster around the four-year mark as batteries age, so a run of them usually means a planned replacement costs less than reactive ones.
Do we need emergency lighting in every room?
No. BS 5266-1 covers escape routes, changes of level, stairs, final exits, fire-fighting equipment and call points, plus open areas over 60 square metres and any high-risk task area. Your fire risk assessment can extend that. We survey against the standard rather than guess.