Our village hall has several fire exits each with a luminaire that is supposed to come on if the mains power fails. The other week they all came on when we were leaving the hall after a function, and we couldn't turn them off. Now - with the exception of exactly one of them - they don't work at all, and the little red lights showing that the battery is charging have gone out.
Any suggestions as to reason for failure?
Are they all fed from a dedicated circuit which has either tripped, or someone accidentally turned off?
Has somebody been fiddling with a "fish" key in the emergency test switch?
They should not be fed from a dedicated circuit - that's against the relevant BS. They need to be fed from the same circuit as the local lighting.
Most likely. It was probably alongside one that should have been switched off. Ask the person who was locking up/checking switches.
charles posted
They are fed from one of the internal lighting circuits.
I don't understand the question (fish key?) so I don't suppose she would either ... could you clarify?
There should be a switch to test the emergency lights, usually concealed, the keys have a characteristic "fish" shape
How old are the fittings, and when where the batteries last replaced? The batteries only have a limited service life - probably 3 - five years while they can still get full run time, and then reducing run time with additional age.
that shows the key. The switch that it fits into will look like a blank with a vertical slot.
a simple question: whereabouts are you? If you're near me, I could take a look. I've been involved with Village Hall electrics for about 40 years.
Yes, I carry one on my key ring now, having been caught out at a weekend at work when someone had managed to disable all the lights!
Don't know but they're definitely older than three years.
That might explain why one of them is still working and the other six aren't.
I can't find any fish key, or any record of it, or any obvious testing switch (apart from the general-purpose testing button). Where would I look on the ELCB unit?
The fuse or circuit breaker that provides mains to the emergency lamp circuit has failed/tripped. Check the fusebox.
I am assuming here that you haven't omitted to mention a power cut.
It would be on a separate switch plate if it existed. When I put emergency lights in our village hall in the early 1970s, the need for such a thing wasn't there. If your lights are of that vintage, you probably won't find it.
Can't see any tripped - and as I say, one of the luminaires is still working, which you wouldn't expect if the trip had gone.
Would that make a difference? We quite frequently get brief power cuts here - a matter of a few seconds - and you don't always know they've happened unless you are doing something sensitive. It might have been that that made the emergency lights come on unexpectedly on the occasion I describe above - could it have disabled some of them permanently too?
If one of them is working then check to see if that is the first in the chain. You may well have a dodgy connection somewhere.
Whenever there is a powercut the emergency lights should come on just as they do when the main lighting circuit fails.
Only if the batteries in them were half dead so that after being fully discharged they refused to recharge again. But in that case you would expect the red charging/mains healthy LED to be lit.
with some units the red light means "battery charging" not "mains healthy".
Irrelevant to the fault: all emergency lighting needs to be tested every year for the full 3 hours amd more frequently just to check it is working. See BSS5266-8 And also "Fire Safety risk assessment for small & medium places of assembly" - published by HMG (Dept for Communities and Local Governemnt). Do bring this to the attention of your Hall committee, their insurance might be void due to non-compliance.
In article , Martin Brown
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Slightly OT, but is anyone else pissed off by equipment that shows a red light to indicate it's working properly. Sometimes a *flashing* red light, which is even worse! Red lights mean a fault!!!!
Early LEDs were only available in red. Most modern kit uses green. I'd say that emergency lights showing red LEDs are rather elderly.
Also equipment with no light to indicate it's ok and a white light to indicate loss of mains power ... maybe I can blame dennis for that one?
Indeed. We have a PBX here with a flashing red "all is well" light somwehere on it.
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