P
pc070772
Hi
I am looking for some guidance on emergency lighting installations.
This is a bit long winded but I will try and give as full a picture as I can.
My wife has recently taken on a large building to open as a preschool for birth to 5 year old children including an after-school club till 7 pm at night.
This building had been empty for 10 years and required extensive works to be carried out as over the years electrical wiring and plumbing had been stripped out by thieves for a quick buck.
The landlord appointed and electrical contractor to rewire all small circuits where required, install new fire alarms, commission and test when finished as is the norm.
In preparation for the fire officer's visit soon I went in to check intumiscent fire door strips where installed, emergency lighting worked correctly etc
I discovered that the emergency lighting on all 3 dist boards was wired into its own circuit and there was nowhere near enough emergency lighting anyway. The emergency lighting has had a key switch installed right next to the dis-board for testing purposes.
The Emergency lighting used is all 30 min Non-maintained, so as you can imagine, in the event of a local circuit failure they will be in darkness at certain times of the year.
It is worth also pointing out that 3 of the 4 distribution boards had to be changed due to age and non compliance.
In an attempt to find out why this has been done I asked my wife for the test sheets and emergency lighting certificate, and guess what... no test certificate!
I then asked out of curiosity if the emergency lights had been installed in new locations or if they had just replaced existing but unfortunately she didn't know the answer.
I am sure this installation is non compliant, to make it compliant these emergency lights MUST be fitted into the local final circuit, and I believe a test certificate should be issued too, and I believe there is grounds to make the contractors redo this work so that it does comply, but given this may be a part install or 'replace existing', could this give them any grounds to install in this way???
Thanks peeps
I am looking for some guidance on emergency lighting installations.
This is a bit long winded but I will try and give as full a picture as I can.
My wife has recently taken on a large building to open as a preschool for birth to 5 year old children including an after-school club till 7 pm at night.
This building had been empty for 10 years and required extensive works to be carried out as over the years electrical wiring and plumbing had been stripped out by thieves for a quick buck.
The landlord appointed and electrical contractor to rewire all small circuits where required, install new fire alarms, commission and test when finished as is the norm.
In preparation for the fire officer's visit soon I went in to check intumiscent fire door strips where installed, emergency lighting worked correctly etc
I discovered that the emergency lighting on all 3 dist boards was wired into its own circuit and there was nowhere near enough emergency lighting anyway. The emergency lighting has had a key switch installed right next to the dis-board for testing purposes.
The Emergency lighting used is all 30 min Non-maintained, so as you can imagine, in the event of a local circuit failure they will be in darkness at certain times of the year.
It is worth also pointing out that 3 of the 4 distribution boards had to be changed due to age and non compliance.
In an attempt to find out why this has been done I asked my wife for the test sheets and emergency lighting certificate, and guess what... no test certificate!
I then asked out of curiosity if the emergency lights had been installed in new locations or if they had just replaced existing but unfortunately she didn't know the answer.
I am sure this installation is non compliant, to make it compliant these emergency lights MUST be fitted into the local final circuit, and I believe a test certificate should be issued too, and I believe there is grounds to make the contractors redo this work so that it does comply, but given this may be a part install or 'replace existing', could this give them any grounds to install in this way???
Thanks peeps