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Guardian Edge
24hr Emergency
Emergency Lighting Maintenance in Modern Corridor

Fire Protection

Emergency Lighting Installation & Testing

Guardian Edge installs, tests and maintains emergency lighting to BS 5266-1 throughout the UK. The standard calls for a monthly short-duration function test and an annual test at full rated duration — usually three hours — with both recorded. We carry out both, and issue the certification.

Escape routes that still work when the power does not.

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Who this is for

  • Responsible persons for any premises with an escape route
  • Managing agents of residential blocks with communal areas
  • Facilities managers running annual duration tests across a portfolio
  • Businesses fitting out or reconfiguring a space

Problems it solves

  • The annual three-hour test has never been done, or was done but not recorded
  • Luminaires fail during the duration test because the batteries are past their life
  • A layout change has left escape routes and exit signage no longer matched
  • The monthly test is nobody's job so it does not happen
  • There is no record of which luminaires exist, let alone their condition

What Guardian Edge provides

Our emergency lighting scope

What we provide

  • Emergency lighting design to BS 5266-1, including escape route, open area and high-risk task area lighting
  • Maintained, non-maintained, self-contained and central battery systems
  • Automatic test systems where manual testing across a large site is impractical
  • Monthly function testing and annual full-duration testing
  • Battery and luminaire replacement
  • Photometric design where coverage needs to be proven rather than assumed

Typical scope

  • Escape routes, stairwells, corridors and final exits
  • Open areas over 60m² requiring anti-panic lighting
  • High-risk task areas where a sudden loss of light would itself create danger
  • Exit and directional signage, including replacement of legacy signage
  • Residential communal areas, plant rooms and external escape routes

Before we price anything

Inspection & survey process

  1. 01

    Map the escape routes

    Where people go in an evacuation, and where a loss of normal lighting would stop them.

  2. 02

    Audit the existing luminaires

    Location, type, age, battery condition and whether the coverage matches the current layout.

  3. 03

    Identify the shortfall

    Missing coverage, failed units, and signage that no longer points anywhere useful.

On site

How the work is delivered

  1. 01

    Design issued

    Luminaire positions and types marked up against the floor plan.

  2. 02

    Installation

    Fitted and wired to the design, with the normal lighting circuits arranged correctly.

  3. 03

    Commissioning

    Full-duration test from commissioning, confirming every unit achieves its rated duration.

  4. 04

    Records issued

    Completion certificate, luminaire schedule and a logbook set up for the monthly tests.

Compliance

What the rules actually require

  • BS 5266-1 recommends a short-duration function test every month and a test at full rated duration every year — usually three hours — with the results recorded in a logbook.
  • The annual duration test should be carried out at a time when the premises can tolerate a period of reduced emergency cover afterwards, because batteries need time to recharge.
  • Emergency lighting is required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 where escape routes would otherwise be unusable in a power failure. The standard sets out how to do it; the Order sets out that it must be done.
  • A luminaire that fails its duration test is a defect, not a discretionary item. We report and price them the same week.

Standards & legislation

These are not all the same kind of obligation, and we do not present them as if they were. A statutory duty is law. A British Standard is the recognised way of demonstrating you have met one. Guidance and our own recommendations are neither.

  • British StandardBS 5266-1

    Emergency lighting — code of practice for the emergency lighting of premises

    Monthly short-duration function test and annual full rated duration test, both recorded.

  • British StandardBS EN 1838

    Lighting applications — emergency lighting

    Sets the photometric requirements: illuminance levels, uniformity and duration.

  • Legal requirementRRO 2005

    Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

    Requires emergency routes and exits to be indicated by signs and provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity where necessary.

    Read the primary source →

Ongoing support

Planned, reactive and multi-site.

Most providers do one of these well. The value of a single provider is that the schedule, the emergency and the portfolio all sit in the same place.

Planned maintenance

  • Annual duration testing scheduled and confirmed in advance
  • Monthly function testing carried out by us where you would rather not do it in-house
  • Battery replacement programmed against luminaire age rather than after failure

Reactive support

  • Failed luminaire replacement, usually from stock
  • Rapid attendance where a duration test has exposed widespread failures

Multi-site & national portfolios

  • One annual duration testing programme across every site
  • Consistent logbook format so your compliance file reads the same everywhere
  • Portfolio reporting on which sites are tested and which are outstanding

Procurement, simplified

What happens next?

  1. 01

    Tell us what you need

    One form, one call or one email. A photograph or an existing report is enough to start.

  2. 02

    We assess the requirement

    We confirm scope, access, and whether a site survey is needed before anything is priced.

  3. 03

    You receive a clear quotation

    Itemised, with what is included and what is not. No provisional sums that move later.

  4. 04

    We arrange attendance

    A confirmed date and window, with the engineer or trade named in advance.

  5. 05

    Works are completed

    Carried out by directly managed engineers or vetted specialist subcontractors.

  6. 06

    Evidence is supplied

    Certification, test records and photographic evidence where the work calls for it.

Answers

Emergency Lightingquestions.

How often must emergency lighting be tested?
BS 5266-1 recommends a short function test every month — long enough to confirm each luminaire illuminates — and a full rated duration test annually, which for most systems means three hours. Both should be recorded in the emergency lighting logbook. The monthly test can be done by your own staff; the annual duration test is usually carried out by a contractor because failures need to be identified and corrected.
What happens if luminaires fail the annual duration test?
Almost always it is the battery rather than the fitting. We record which units failed, quote for battery or luminaire replacement, and retest afterwards. Widespread failure across a site usually means the luminaires were all installed at the same time and have reached end of life together — which is worth planning for rather than discovering.

Related services

Locations covered

Get a quotation for emergency lighting.

One form, one call or one email. A photograph or an existing report is enough for us to start — and we will tell you plainly whether a site survey is needed before anything is priced.

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