Wireless emergency lighting system: Tiree High School
This project centered on the refurbishment and upgrade of the emergency lighting system within Tiree High School, situated on the remote island of Tiree. The site required a compliant solution that could support ongoing safety without placing additional strain on local maintenance resources.
The objective was to upgrade the outdated emergency lighting to a new system that not only boosted reliability and simplified testing but also facilitated easier, long-term compliance maintenance, even in challenging locations with difficult access.
Sector
Education
System
Wireless emergency lighting system
Key Stats
1 Control system
2 Testing panels
The challenge
Tiree’s remote island location made logistics and ongoing support a key part of the planning process. The project had limited access windows and delivery schedules needed careful coordination. Once installed, the system also had to be easy to manage, with minimal need for repeated manual testing or specialist callouts.
In education environments, adherence to British standards is essential for emergency lighting. This critical compliance requires routine testing and maintenance. The school needed a solution that could reduce the burden on staff, while still providing confidence that the system was working correctly at all times.
Our solution
To overcome this, we chose a wireless central testing system, which allows the entire emergency lighting installation to be monitored and managed remotely.The goal was to replace the old emergency lighting with a new system. This new system improved reliability and made testing easier. It also helped with long-term maintenance, even in hard-to-reach places. This approach removed the need for engineers to travel to the island for regular testing, significantly reducing disruption, cost, and response times. It also ensured the system remains compliant and fully operational despite the logistical constraints of working in such an isolated environment.
The project uses a range of different types of emergency luminiares throughout the building, each equipped with their own integral battery. Every luminaire features a unique serial number, which facilitates remote testing and monitoring via a central control panel.
Communication is made wireless through the creation of a mesh network. Each luminiare acts as a repeater and bounces the communication off surounding luminiares that reports back to the panel.
The wireless approach simplified installation, particularly useful in a live school environment where they had to carefully manage access and disruption.
Outcome
The new system has reduced ongoing testing workload and improved visibility of system performance. Fault identification is faster, testing is recorded automatically, and compliance reporting is easier to manage byt the responsible person.
For a remote location where every visit matters, the upgrade delivers long term confidence, better compliance support, and a practical approach suited to the site and its resources.
