Whether you're installing an emergency lighting system in a new building or you're simply revamping the system at your existing business, you'll want to make sure you're not setting yourself up for high maintenance costs in the future. Here are 3 tips that will help you keep emergency lighting maintenance and repair costs as low as possible.

Switch to High-Quality LED Lights

Many businesses use versatile emergency lighting that doubles up as regular lighting in non-emergency situations. This type of lighting, often known as maintained lighting, is a great way to save money because it minimises the number of lights you need to have installed. However, if you go this route, it's important that you don't choose just any type of maintained lights.

The inexpensiveness of low quality fluorescent bulbs and cheap LEDs makes them an attractive choice, but these lights often don't produce enough luminance and deteriorate quickly. Saving money up front will cost you more money in the long run in bulb replacement costs, so it's a good idea to buy high-quality LED emergency lights from the outset. These bulbs produce adequate light and have greater longevity than cheaper lighting.

Choose an Easily Dismantled Light

No matter how much you pay for your emergency lighting, no light is infallible. Whether it's sooner or later, you're likely to run into a problem eventually. There are several potential faults and breakages you could face, include circuitry failure and dead batteries. Ideally, unless the light or wiring is beyond repair, you'll want to resolve individual problems without having to replace your unit, given that this is the most cost-effective solution.

The best way to ensure it'll be possible to save money by repairing instead of replacing is to buy emergency lights that are easily dismantled. Look for lights that can be quickly dismantled from the base or fittings with a removable battery compartment. If your lights can be taken apart, your electrical repair service will be able to address your problem swiftly and cheaply. Quickly dismantled lighting can also be cleaned regularly with ease, reducing the risk of faults occurring. 

Check and Test Regularly

As with most problems in life, the earlier you detect breaks and faults in your emergency lights, the cheaper the repair cost is likely to be. Many issues will only get worse with time; aside from the safety hazard this poses, it could also result in you having to replace expensive lights that could have been repaired for a far lower price.

By law, you'll need to test your emergency lights once every 6 months, but there's no reason you can't check them more often than that. If you find that testing your lights incurs high labour costs for your business, look for a lighting system that can self-test automatically without the need for external workers. These may be more expensive to purchase, but they'll pay for themselves in saved money.