Emergency lighting maintenance (testing) requirements are:
The timing for when testing occurs can be
Manual testing requires maintenance personnel remember to visit each device, at least once per month, and either press the product's test switch or remove power to the luminaire by the breaker or other means. The performance of the emergency lighting devices must be visually monitored during the test duration and results recorded.
Standard self-testing emergency lighting products and products with STSelect automatically perform these tests, per code. However, the date and time these test are run are random, light by light. This is done so emergency lights under test do not all reduce illumination in emergency mode at the same time, which could be inconvenient to building occupants. Another reason for this is if a duration test was just performed, it will likely leave all recently tested products in need of charge. If power were to fail soon after testing, the devices wouldn't be able to light the area for the full 90 minutes.
Standard self-testing and STSelect products will attempt to delay testing if the room in which they are installed are occupied at the time of the test. These products detect if switched hot is present at the luminaire, indicating the lights are on. The product delays for a preset time, typically 8 hours, and checks again. These products will delay a set number of times before forcing the test to be performed, no matter the state of the switched hot. In short, within a month, all tests will be performed as required.
Easy custom schedules with FirstLink
For areas where the lighting is off while the area is occupied (think theater, operating room, and similar) or for individuals wanting detailed control over the time and day tests are performed, there's FirstLink. FirstLink allows custom schedule at the group or zone level, allowing detailed control over which devices go into self-test when. Schedule testing around regular building occupants, open hours, special events, or whatever the installation requires. FirstLink offers many more benefits and allows for much greater control than mentioned here. For full details, read more about FirstLink here.
Code also requires written record of emergency lighting testing results, which must be kept for 5 years and provided to the authority having jurisdiction during an inspection.
Results from manual testing or self-testing / STSelect devices must be manually recorded and documented. As mentioned above, manual testing results must be observed at the time of testing by observation of the emergency luminaire's light output. Self-test and STSelect devices indicate success or failure by the charging/status indicator light that is supplied with every Bodine emergency lighting device. Once per month, maintenance or otherwise responsible personnel must go to each device and observe the status of the indicator light to determine if the last test performed was successful or if there was a failure. The product's installation instructions will explain what any failure code means, which should be used to repair or replace the product. This should also be recorded in the documentation.
The FirstLink emergency lighting devices report their test results to the FirstLink app or, automatically, to the FirstLink gateway. Once the results are collected reports are generated in one of two ways. First, for stand-alone FirstLink systems, one uses the FirstLink app to create a test report from the data retrieved from the emergency lighting devices. The report is generated immediately in the app and it can then be stored or shared by email, messaging or whatever other means are available on the mobile device.
For FirstLink Remote Services users, standard test reports are generated monthly in the FirstLink cloud and automatically placed onto the FirstLink customer portal. If a test failure is found, a special report is generated promptly and also placed onto the portal. Portal users are notified by email when a new report has been generated.
