An emergency lighting log is the record that the testing regime happened. Downloadable templates are widely available and most of them fail the same way a fire door template does: they record that testing took place without identifying what was tested, which makes the record unusable the moment somebody asks about a specific luminaire.
The schedule behind the log
Before any log is useful there has to be a schedule of every luminaire with a reference that exists on the fitting as well as on the paper, its location, its type, whether it is maintained or non maintained, and its rated duration. Without that, a monthly entry saying the emergency lighting was tested cannot be checked against anything. Creating the schedule is the first job in any building that does not have one.
What each entry records
The date. The type of test, function or duration. The result for each luminaire, not for the building. Any failure, what was done about it, by whom and when it was closed out. And the name of the person who carried out the test. A failure that appears in one month's entry and never reappears as a repair is the pattern an enforcing officer looks for.
The system record
Alongside the tests: the original design and completion certificate, any alterations to the building that changed the lighting, battery replacements, and the dates of any full duration tests including which sections were tested when the building was tested in parts. That last point matters, because a building tested in sections needs the log to show that every section was covered across the year.
Where it lives
With the fire log book alongside the alarm and extinguisher records, because that is the document set an enforcing officer asks for and the set an insurer asks for after a loss. An automatic test system that logs to a panel or to software still needs its output to be available in that form, not only on a screen somebody has the password for.
An emergency light log book, and the entries an inspector reads
The log book is the evidence that the system works, and an inspector reads four things in it. The monthly functional test: date, who did it, and any fitting that failed, which means switching the supply off briefly and walking the route looking at every fitting, not pressing a test key and hoping. The annual full duration test, which discharges the batteries for their rated time, usually three hours, and is the one test that actually proves the system rather than the lamp, and the one most often skipped because it takes the day. The remedial actions, with dates, because a failed fitting recorded three times and never replaced is worse evidence than no log at all. And the system record: the as fitted drawing, the design category and the commissioning certificate, kept at the front. Add the battery replacement dates and the date the log itself was started, and the book answers the questions before they are asked.
Questions people ask about emergency lighting log book PDF
Is a log book legally required?
The record is not named in law. The maintenance duty is, and the log is the ordinary way of evidencing it. A building with no record cannot show the duty was met.
How long should the log be kept?
Long enough to show a continuous history, which means years. The superseded pages are part of the evidence rather than clutter.
Does an automatic system remove the need for a log?
No. It generates the log and somebody still has to review it, act on failures and keep the output where it can be produced.
What do emergency lighting tests have to record?
The date, what was tested, the result and the action for anything that failed, for both the monthly function test and the annual full duration test. A log with passes and no failures across several years is usually a log nobody filled in on the day.