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Blue Bay Travel has over 100 industry awards to its name. Launched in 2003, the business has grown significantly in recent years, and its stylish offices in Trentham, Staffordshire, now houses a team of 120 staff.

During a programme to upgrade the head office premises – which comprises a total of four individual office buildings – the installation of a range of Duceri emergency lighting products from leading industry supplier, ESP, was undertaken.

Martyn Walley, Managing Director of electrical contracting firm, Hide, had overall responsibility for the project and worked closely with ESP’s design and technical teams to come up with a suitable emergency lighting scheme. Although

a manual test system was originally considered, it was agreed that a self-test system would be more suitable, to avoid any impact on the day-to-day operational requirements of the offices. Self-test emergency light fittings offer numerous benefits over standard fittings by reducing the costs and time associated with manual testing and inspection.

The decision was made to install new circuits for the emergency lighting system installation so as not to disturb the existing installation and create disruption for the staff. The emergency lighting system was installed through all four of the office blocks utilised by Blue Bay Travel, with a range of products selected for their suitability.

The Duceri 9W LED IP65 Non-Maintained 3hr Self-Test Emergency Twin Spot was selected for the general office. For the main door to the buildings, the Duceri 3W LED IP65 Non-Maintained 3hr Self-Test Emergency Bulkhead was installed, while for the rest room facilities, the Duceri 3W LED 3hr Self-Test Emergency Open Lens Downlight was selected.

All emergency lighting installations must have routine tests carried out, with each system luminaire the subject of daily, monthly and annual testing. These tests should all be documented with the results including maintenance and rectification results all held on file.

Whilst the testing of emergency lighting does not take much effort and isn’t difficult, manually inspecting every single lighting luminaire for lamp starting, operation and duration performance can be a very labour intensive and therefore expensive task. However, with the latest improvements in technology, routine testing can be simple, automatic and therefore much less expensive. It is now possible for building owners to take advantage of emergency lighting equipment that ‘self-tests’ in accordance with the relevant standards.

Self-test units use an accurate internal clock programmed to interrupt the permanent mains supply at set intervals, initiating emergency lighting tests. Short duration weekly and monthly tests and annual full duration tests are automatically activated with the results shown via an LED indicator on the light. The responsible person only needs to check the indicator and it means that only lights with reported faults will need to be attended to by maintenance personnel.

ESP’s Duceri Self-Test range has been tested and complies with all the very latest standards. The fittings are easy to install – without any need for key switches or data cables – and offer convenience and reduced maintenance time and costs.

Blue Bay Travel is a long-haul specialist tour operator offering holidays to the Indian Ocean (the Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Réunion, Sri Lanka), Caribbean (Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos), Far East and India (Thailand, Goa, Indonesia), Middle East and Africa (United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Oman, Turkey, Cape Verde) and the Americas (USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama).