Guide
Emergency lighting testing cost: what drives the price
Updated
Emergency lighting is the cheapest line in a fire compliance budget to get wrong, because the test that matters most is the one most often left out of a quote.
The two kinds of test
- The short function test
- A brief simulated mains failure to confirm each luminaire illuminates and its lamp and battery respond. Quick, routine and usually done in house or as part of a visit.
- The annual full duration test
- The system is run on battery for its rated duration to prove it will still light escape routes for as long as it is designed to. This is the test that finds tired batteries, and the one most often priced separately or quietly omitted.
The frequency and conduct of these tests follow BS 5266-1, the British Standard covering emergency lighting for premises, together with what your fire risk assessment concludes. They are not intervals written into the Fire Safety Order: article 14 requires emergency routes and exits requiring illumination to be provided with emergency lighting of adequate intensity in case the normal lighting fails (legislation.gov.uk), and article 17 requires the equipment to be maintained in efficient working order. BS 5266-1 is paywalled, so we name it rather than reproduce it: ask your contractor which clause their regime follows.
What moves the price
- Number of luminaires, including exit signs. This is the primary driver, in the same way device count drives alarm servicing.
- Self-test or manual. Self-testing luminaires report their own results, which cuts engineer time but adds capital cost and its own failure modes.
- The duration test. It ties up the building for the rated duration and generates the recharge period afterwards, so it is scheduled work, not a drop-in.
- Battery age. Batteries are consumables. A system past its first decade will fail duration tests in numbers, which is a replacement programme rather than a servicing question.
- Access equipment. High bay units, atria and stairwell fittings need towers or podiums, and that shows up in the price.
- Occupancy. Testing that has to happen outside trading hours costs more.
Getting a comparable quote
- Give every contractor the same luminaire count, including exit signs, and say whether the fittings are self-test.
- Ask explicitly whether the annual full duration test is in the price, and what the report shows for each fitting.
- Ask what happens to failed fittings: is a battery or lamp replacement charged as parts plus labour, or covered.
- Ask about access: who provides the tower or podium for high level fittings.
If a quote does not mention duration testing at all, it is not a complete emergency lighting service, whatever the annual figure looks like.