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Specifier·3 min read

Self-testing: what NFPA requires and what Sage automates

Monthly functional tests + annual discharge tests — for every emergency fixture in the building.

NFPA 101 mandates a specific testing regimen for emergency lighting systems. Doing it manually is a facility-staff nightmare. Sage Live™ automates most of it.

What NFPA 101 requires

  • Monthly functional test — at least 30 seconds of emergency operation to verify transfer and output
  • Annual discharge test — full 90-minute emergency run to confirm rated duration
  • Written log of every test, retained for the life of the building
  • Repair of any fixture that fails a test — verified by retest

The manual version

Without automation, facility staff must walk the building every month, push the test button on every emergency fixture, time the response, record the result in a paper log, and retest any fixture that failed. In a 200,000-sq-ft hospital with ~400 emergency fixtures, this is roughly a full-day effort every month.

How Sage Live™ automates it

Sage central battery systems schedule and execute the monthly functional test and annual discharge test automatically. Per-fixture results are logged to the cloud. The written NFPA log is generated on demand (PDF) with fixture-by-fixture timestamped results. Alerts fire on any failure. Staff visit failed fixtures, not every fixture.

Inspector-ready

Fire marshals, Joint Commission surveyors, and CMS inspectors all ask for the test log. Sage Live™ generates it as a PDF with one click. The same log is continuously available to facility management and can be exported to building management systems via API.