The Basics of Emergency Light Maintenance
Keeping your building’s emergency lights in working order is extremely important, far more than you might think. Not only do they help prevent panic, serious injuries and death, but it nearly any city, if you’re building has a certain standing, you’re required by law to keep your emergency lights up and running. When the power goes out in a building, especially one without a lot of windows, visibility can instantly be cut down to nil. Can you imagine being on the 30th floor of a building, or in an indoor arena with thousands of people freaking out in pitch black? It would be absolute chaos, to say the least.
Now that you have a greater appreciation for their significance, let me give you a few tips on emergency light maintenance:
Get yourself familiar with your hardware. Learn where the emergency lights and illuminated signs are in your building, how many you have any there status. For large operations, I recommend putting together a spreadsheet encompassing that information. Read the documentation and get to know the parts.
Order yourself an inventory of replacement parts, and keep this organized. This inventory should consist primarily of bulbs and batteries, but it’s in your vest interest to include other items as well; from wire nuts up to circuit boards. When something needs replaced, replace it, and order the new part – there’s no reason it has to be complicated.
As far as repairs are concerned, they’re usually quite simple. If you’ve ever worked on cars, computers, or any other mechanically inclined trade, you know that most issues are caused by basic physical shortcomings. As previously implied, often the problem is due to loose wire nuts or bad bulbs – check and replace these accordingly. The majority of other problems are going to be caused by dead batteries, or perhaps bad chargers. Test your dying batteries in known-good units to pinpoint the problem. If it’s the battery, get a new one – you have an inventory of them.
Every now and then, you’ll run into an issue that requires replacing other parts, most commonly, the system board. When this is the case, consult the specific instructions in your product’s documentation, and check the warranty to see if it can be done for you. If you need to do it yourself, consult the manual for specifics or hire a professional. Most importantly, find out what other units, if any, are linked to the light in question. You don’t want to have a bigger problem on your hand due to ignorance
Finally, get in the habit of testing your lights often. You can catch problems early to avoid minor catastrophe, and it’s usually required by law. For more information, take a look at this guide on fixing emergency lighting.