Maintained Lighting

Good Morning, (edit, Good Afternoon!)

At the top of my cellar, there is currently a tiny strip light.

I would like to replace this with some form of emergency light so that if the house lighting RCBO trips for any reason there will be lit path down the the consumer unit in the cellar.

Would a maintained light be a straight swap for this purpose? i.e. Are they any special wiring requirements for maintained lights?

A maintained light as I understand it must have a permenant live and a switched live.

If a test switch is fitted it must isolate both for the emergency light to illuminate.

Steve said:

A maintained light as I understand it must have a permenant live and a switched live.

If a test switch is fitted it must isolate both for the emergency light to illuminate.

Click to expand...

Cheers Steve,

Makes sense when you think about it!

I was hoping that the switching would be done within the light itself (i.e the light would have terminals for a remote switch)

Looks like the easiest way for me would be to replace the current strip light with something nicer and then add a non maintained light from somewhere else on the cellar lighting circuit.

Steve said:

A maintained light as I understand it must have a permenant live and a switched live.

If a test switch is fitted it must isolate both for the emergency light to illuminate.

Click to expand...

disinfo said:

I was hoping that the switching would be done within the light itself (i.e the light would have terminals for a remote switch)

Click to expand...

That's exactly what Steve said. A switched live terminal is for connection to a remote switch.

There is some debate about whether or not a 'maintained' fitting really offers a switchable tube, the use of these definitions seems to vary between manufacturers, so check the instructions first.

You can fit an emergency light. If your existing light is wired using the loop-in method it's really easy as you will have both the live and the switched live. If you only have one cable (i.e. no permanant live) you can still fit an emergency light if you leave the lightswitch permanently on (by rewiring the switch maybe) thereby giving you a permanent live. You will then need to run a switchline to wherever you want your switch. You can use the terminals inside the fitting for this.

I'm not sure in your situation whether a test-switch is compulsory, although I would fit one as it can then be use as a point of isolation. You could replace the existing lightswitch with a key-switch.

If he rarely uses the cellar, he could wire the light fitting so that when he turns the switch OFF, it cuts power and turns on the light, thus testing it in the process.

@ the OP, go and buy a HF tube fitting and fit it with an EM pack. It'll look exactly same as now.