My lights have already gone out once this spring, thanks to a lovely, unexpected North Carolina thunderstorm. Lucky for me, I live in an apartment with small rooms and large windows. During the day, electric lights don’t make that much of a difference.
However, if you’re charged managing a large shopping mall, school, theater, or office, your power outage protocol isn’t nearly as simple.
When the lights go out, it’s up to you to ensure the people’s safety.
Are you prepared?
Most importantly, you’ve got to maintain functional exit signs, because they might be the only thing during an outage that stands between order and panic. When the power goes out, your lighted exit signs will too, unless they have functional backup batteries.
We suggest you make it a goal to inspect the exit sign batteries around your establishment at least once every three months. Most exit signs have convenient “push to test buttons” that let you do this in a matter of seconds.
What if the battery isn’t working?
If you test your sign in emergency mode and it doesn’t turn on, there may be one of several things going on:
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The battery isn’t connected to the circuit board. The battery must be connected in order to function in emergency mode.
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The battery isn’t charged. Make sure the battery has been charged for at least a couple of hours before doing any tests. For a full 90-minute emergency operation, you need to charge the battery for 24 hours.
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The battery is dead. If you connect the battery to the circuit board and find that it won’t hold charge, you’ll need a replacement battery.
To learn more, you can check out the exit lighting page on our website, or contact our customer service department at 800.392.4818.