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Emergency Lighting

Morning all.


I am based on a large site in Hemel Hempstead. Maintenance has been neglected for many years. Offices and labs have been move around with no thought to the emergency lighting requirements.


We are now trying to take control of the situation  and I am looking for a company to do the design for us - Google hasn’t produced many ideas!


if any of you guys and gals could point me in the  right direction that would be very helpful.

  • Andy,

    I've sent you a PM.

    Richard.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Start with a company that has 3rd Party accreditation (so BAFE as an example)


    Or a consultant with a good PII who you can engage with, and hand of the out-turn design for final verification to a contractor with 3rd party accreditation


    Or chance it with a contractor of your choice, some are pretty good, some not


    Be very clear about what you want to achieve (eg, basic compliance, something that reduces the maintenance burden like self test and monitoring, longevity, capital versus revenue costs etc etc (possibly why Option 2 above might suit you best) - and do consult with relevant parties (insurance, responsible person for Fire under the RRO, etc)


    Regards


    OMS

  • OMS:

    Start with a company that has 3rd Party accreditation (so BAFE as an example)


    Or a consultant with a good PII who you can engage with, and hand of the out-turn design for final verification to a contractor with 3rd party accreditation


    Or chance it with a contractor of your choice, some are pretty good, some not


    Be very clear about what you want to achieve (eg, basic compliance, something that reduces the maintenance burden like self test and monitoring, longevity, capital versus revenue costs etc etc (possibly why Option 2 above might suit you best) - and do consult with relevant parties (insurance, responsible person for Fire under the RRO, etc)


    Regards


    OMS




    Excellent advice OMS.

    Only thing I would say, is that passing a design over for verification may be more complicated than just using an accredited designer in the first place.

  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Possibly, Richard - but it's fairly common practice, as a consultant I'm usually happy for there to be two signatures in the certification for design and one for verification.


    I was just suggesting that a "party" not tied in with any manufacturer or installer is probably the best placed to give impartial advice as to "what" is required, and the principles of "how" that is achieved (eg is central battery the right option, based on a specific client needs, is a lighting upgrade worthwhile whilst cutting and carving the emergency lighting system)


    Regards


    OMS

  • OMS:

    Possibly, Richard - but it's fairly common practice, as a consultant I'm usually happy for there to be two signatures in the certification for design and one for verification.


    I was just suggesting that a "party" not tied in with any manufacturer or installer is probably the best placed to give impartial advice as to "what" is required, and the principles of "how" that is achieved (eg is central battery the right option, based on a specific client needs, is a lighting upgrade worthwhile whilst cutting and carving the emergency lighting system)


    Regards


    OMS




    Sorry, my mistake I misunderstood. I thought you meant pass the design across to a TPA designer for authorisation.

    Yes, multiple signatures on the cert are OK. It is common practice for the designer to commission the system...but not always.

    I definitely agree manufacturers are not the best option...they are cheaper (or even free) but they are selling lights, not lighting. And I've seen some pretty poor non-compliant designs from them. And most aren't TPA.

  • Thanks for your responses. Being on a phone makes it difficult to post.


    I would definitely like to get a professional designer to asses the needs of the site so that a complete spec can be handed out to an contractor to install.

    The trouble I’ve had inviting contractors is they all have their own ideas and interpretations mixed in with little urban myths that they’ve picked up over the years.


    It is a complex site, some areas are  offices, some areas are test labs. We have cad drawings to help. I could ask a manufacturer to design the system for us but that has its own problems in that we test emergency light fittings and I don’t want to show favouritism and/or jeopardise the company relationships.


  • If you can get those CAD plans across to us Andy, we can start to assess the situation for you.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    Andy65:

    Thanks for your responses. Being on a phone makes it difficult to post.


    I would definitely like to get a professional designer to asses the needs of the site so that a complete spec can be handed out to an contractor to install.

    The trouble I’ve had inviting contractors is they all have their own ideas and interpretations mixed in with little urban myths that they’ve picked up over the years.


    It is a complex site, some areas are  offices, some areas are test labs. We have cad drawings to help. I could ask a manufacturer to design the system for us but that has its own problems in that we test emergency light fittings and I don’t want to show favouritism and/or jeopardise the company relationships.


     




    Interpretation and opinions, you will unfortunately have to join the dots. You'll find this in all walks of life, in a room full of electrician's you will more than likely get numerous solutions for the same scenario, doesn't mean any are incorrect. 


    Imo best to get an experienced expert in to mitigate risk as much as possible. 


    Regards TS

     

  • I concur with the advice that you decide what you want to specify first.

    Regular testing can be a major expense if it is to be done properly and there are systems that do this for you and report to a central computer. I suspect that your owner would hesitate at the cost of these but they would probably save a lot of money in the long term.

    One point worth remembering is that they should provide illumination if there is a local power failure as well as a general one so Emergency Lighting should usually be fed from the same circuit as the normal lighting.

    There are other issues like do you want maintained (always ON) non maintained (Normally OFF) or switched non maintained (comes on and off with the other lighting). Maintained used to be popular as it allowed occupant to see immediately if a lamp had failed. Nowadays with LED lighting this is probably less important.