Emergency Light Test Switch.

A story I have told several times on this forum.


The retired rep from one of the wholesalers got me to go and do some work in a theatre where he does the stage lighting.


I phoned him and said there was a problem, because I had turned a lighting circuit off and I was in darkness, because the emergency lighting had not come on.


He said “Oh no! Not again!” I enquired what the previous issue was and he said the licensing officer had been to do an inspection and whilst standing in the bar he gave the instruction to turn the general lighting off at the MCBs in the distribution board to test the emergency lights, the bar manager said they had EM test switches behind the bar and used those, but the licensing officer was adamant that he wanted the lights to be isolated at the distribution board. When the emergency lighting did not come on because they were supplied from a different circuit to the general lighting he issued an enforcement notice.


Generally licensing officers don’t trust electricians to get things right and may not use a test switch opting to kill all the power to the lights instead at the distribution board.

A story I have told several times on this forum.


The retired rep from one of the wholesalers got me to go and do some work in a theatre where he does the stage lighting.


I phoned him and said there was a problem, because I had turned a lighting circuit off and I was in darkness, because the emergency lighting had not come on.


He said “Oh no! Not again!” I enquired what the previous issue was and he said the licensing officer had been to do an inspection and whilst standing in the bar he gave the instruction to turn the general lighting off at the MCBs in the distribution board to test the emergency lights, the bar manager said they had EM test switches behind the bar and used those, but the licensing officer was adamant that he wanted the lights to be isolated at the distribution board. When the emergency lighting did not come on because they were supplied from a different circuit to the general lighting he issued an enforcement notice.


Generally licensing officers don’t trust electricians to get things right and may not use a test switch opting to kill all the power to the lights instead at the distribution board.