I have always followed Lacors (2013 I believe this is the last revision/amend).

I have an HMO, with non maintained Emergency Lighting, mains supplied, with back up battery.

It states: monthly periodic flick tests performed and Logged by the manager or fire contact, with annual periodic tests certified by a competent person.

The competent person has contacted me to say he has an update to guidance that states: every six months a 1 hour test to be performed by manager/fire contact (in addition to above tests).

I will ask him how he has been informed of this update, and should it superseed the Lacors Guidance.

Thanks.

 

Question is - before I challenge his competence, is he correct, I cannot find any reference online to such an update.

I am not sure if HMOs are his main line of business, and in the past have had sightly conflicting information from him on very minor issues, which has had to be fact checked.
As as an aside, should my engineer be expected to folllow the 'letter of the law', he's competent, but not a Barrister in the Law.

Current 5266

Thank you for that extract.

My Lacors Guidance (which I believe is current),  s32.8 references BS 5266-8: 2004 (BS EN 50172: 2004) Emergency Escape Lighting Systems, however I understand that is the guidance I should follow, unless an amendment is made and published for the Lacors Guidance to cover updated documents.

So I see no 6 month 1 hour test mentioned.

I am currently following the Lacors/BS5266 maintenance guidance, so can't see and of my procedures are missing anything.

I will have to go back and ask my competent person where he is getting his information from.

What he is suggesting makes sense - the extra test can't be a bad thing, but unless its guidance I should legally follow, then it shouldn't apply, and neither should I follow it, do I interpret the situation correctly.

On 03/08/2023 at 18:22, bob2813 said:

I have always followed Lacors (2013 I believe this is the last revision/amend).

I have an HMO, with non maintained Emergency Lighting, mains supplied, with back up battery.

It states: monthly periodic flick tests performed and Logged by the manager or fire contact, with annual periodic tests certified by a competent person.

The competent person has contacted me to say he has an update to guidance that states: every six months a 1 hour test to be performed by manager/fire contact (in addition to above tests).

I will ask him how he has been informed of this update, and should it superseed the Lacors Guidance.

Thanks.

 

Utter rubbish to get more work - the 6 monthly 1 hour test requirement was removed in 2004!

18 hours ago, AnthonyB said:

Utter rubbish to get more work - the 6 monthly 1 hour test requirement was removed in 2004!

Was it ? umm, thats helpful to know, my Competent Person is saying I could do the test, so their is no financial incentive for him, and we have worked together for years and I trust him not to rip me off, although I am aware - wool and eyes - can happen.

This thread states that BS5266: 1999 had it, but it was removed in 2005, not 2016, bit not that is matters, important point is that is was removed.
It reads "Six monthly test of self contained and central battery systems by simulation of a failure of the normal lighting supply, for a continuous period of one hour. During the test check all luminaries for proper function."
https://forum.iosh.co.uk/posts/t85842-Emergency-Lighting---6-Monthly-Test

Why was it removed ????


 

Because it dated back to old battery technology (such as when wet lead acid central battery systems were common) and gives no benefit. Current battery types are actually damaged by part duration testing and it was found that by hour testing cells soon developed a memory effect and would prematurely fail 3 hour tests - a nice earner for test and install company's but a unnecessary large cost to end users

@AnthonyB Thank you, that all makes sense now, I will go back to my Competent Person and ask him where he is getting his information from.