Emergency Lighting: The BS 5266 Tests You Cannot Skip
Monthly function tests, annual three-hour duration tests, and why your evacuation route lighting is the single most-failed audit item in the UK.
When mains power fails during a fire, your emergency lighting has one job: keep escape routes visible long enough for everyone to get out. BS 5266-1 is the code of practice that defines how it's designed, tested and maintained.
The two tests you must do
- ▸Monthly function test — switch each luminaire to battery, confirm it illuminates. Brief, but mandatory.
- ▸Annual three-hour duration test — every luminaire run on battery for its full rated duration (usually 3 hours), then recharged and re-checked.
Why so many sites fail
Emergency lighting batteries degrade silently. A luminaire can pass a 30-second function test for years while its battery has lost 80% of its capacity — meaning it'll die after 20 minutes in a real evacuation. The annual duration test is the only way to catch this, and it's the test most often skipped.
Logbook requirements
Every test result, every battery replacement, every fault and remediation must be logged. The logbook is the first thing a fire risk assessor or enforcement officer asks for. A missing logbook is treated as a failed test, regardless of the actual condition of the equipment.
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