I would be lost both literally and figuratively if I ever lost my lights unexpectedly. As a supreme klutz, this is something that concerns me somewhat, which is exactly why I invested in halogen lamp emergency lighting and combo exit emergency lighting.

Emergency lighting is required by law to be in different buildings and can be found in corridors, stairwells, aisles, ramps, exit passageways and even escalators. These lights are used to provide people with light if a power outage ever occurs in their building. This is important, because a building’s occupants might become panicked or disoriented during a power outage, especially if the system fails and doesn’t work properly. Too often the routine maintenance of exit lights in buildings gets overlooked until an emergency happens, and by then it’s far too late. It is required by law that every business owner participates in having regular maintenance done on their emergency lights.

As a building owner, I have a maintenance technician trained in testing these emergency lighting systems. In Florida they come to my buildings to perform the necessary maintenance and testing of the entire system once a year. All the technicians are required to give the proper information about all the emergency lights; all written records. They are required by law to give this information over to the owner of the building where they are inspecting the emergency lighting system. Every building owner should have a trained professional, (technician) come inspect their building’s emergency lighting on an annual basis. This will help to ensure that your exit signs are working properly and won’t leave you in the dark during a power outage.

A typical test I use to see if the emergency lighting system is working properly is about 90 minutes long and consists of the following things:

• Disconnection of the AC power supply to each of the lights
• The battery for each light is then tested
• Lens is tested for sulfation
• and a  good cleaning of the units and lens needs to be performed.

The technician needs to make sure all the head bulb beams are adjusted to their proper alignment and last, I make sure the technician puts a place a proper testing label on each unit and records the time and date the test was performed in your building’s light testing log.

I also favor the use of use led exit signs because they are rated for 50,000 plus hours and use less electricity and thus less maintenance…. Less likely to fail someone in a power outage as well.

Sometimes the emergency lighting system may need repair or troubleshooting to take place. Both usually require a trained professional to check and adjust the voltage of the charging system. Sometimes the output voltage of the battery needs to be checked and other times they’ll have to check the live voltage that is going to remote fixtures. If you’ve had your inspection done on your system, but sometime after you see the lights have gone out or you don’t believe they are working properly you must call a technician to perform the necessary troubleshooting or repair functions for the lights. It is VERY important to keep on top of the maintenance to your emergency lights. You want them working in case , you never want to be left in the dark.