Fire Alarm Systems

Richard Best Regards Thank you for your time I am very confused what i need. I am currently constructing a cookery school in a new development in Wandsworth and i need a fire alarm. We have had the building control in and they said we needed BS 5266: Part 1. I have looked this up and it is about emergency lighting. The property is 1000sqft it consists of a small bathroom store room and office and largest part kitchen aprox 800sqft. Is there any chance you could advise me further on what i need. Such as control panel heat detectors etc. Dear Sir/Madam

Hi, we run a data center in Edinburgh with one main building and 4 separate external metal generator enclosures approx. 3x6m. each. The enclosures have their own fire protection, which is separate to the main building system. You can't hear the alarm for the main building from inside the enclosures. Also, the enclosures are sited within 3m from the main building. So, what we're asking is, would this be a legal requirement to have sounders from the main system in these enclosures? Do they have to be linked in any way? Or would this just be regarded as 'good practice'

Does anyone know what the maximum time delay allowed between the first and second stage of a two stage fire alarm system is?

Hi, I am contacting yourselves to hopefully find an answer to whether this complies with current regs. On a bi wire conventional system (sounders and zone cabling on same wire) do these have to have a minimum of two zones, like on a standard conventional sounder circuits. My thinking behind this is that if a zone cable gets damaged you are going to want a backup of sounders. Thanks in advance Robin

Hi there, Is there a statutory requirement for landlords of Farms (buildings including crop and livestock storage) to have fire detection and emergency lighting installed. I welcome any legislation or guidance relating to agricultural buildings. Thanks Edd

Hello, We have recently had a quote on a non working fire alarm system in our office. They have said they can get it working and fix the system however it won't be compliment to current British standards, can someone explain what this would mean? does it need to comply?

Hello, I am converting a large Victorian house into self contained flats. I have been advised that I need fit a domestic grade system to the flats with a smoke detector and heat detector and a AOV vent in the communal area. I have also been advised that a panel isn't mandatory. I am speaking to a variety of electricians but I wondered what alarm systems are 'good'. The two that have been most commonly mentioned are Aico and Fike Twin Flex Pro. Opinions?

I would appreciate if you could please tell me is there a compulsive period that a battery from a fire panel must be changed or does it just depends if fail a voltage charge test. As we have just changed maintenance company and they have informed me that the batteries has to be changed every year ! I will appreciate if you could verify if this is correct.

We have a four bed house which we let out as a shared house to 4 people. This is now covered by additional licensing and we need to register it. It has a mains fed alarm system but does it also need manual call points? Many thanks.

Hello I hope you can help, I have a Precept 8 zone conventional panel in a property which has had a new entrance created I intend to extend the local zone and install an additional break glass but the Fulleon break glass has 470 or 680 connections, no documentation is available on site and my meters in for calibration so I cannot check the other break glass units on site for a day or so anyone know from there years of experience which value to use? many thanks gjw

We’ve just acquired new Laser (class 4) cutting cell with Calcium Hydroxide filtration system. As a matter of fact, the system does prove to produce fire from the cutting tables and history suggests that it’s also likely with the dust collector in the filter chamber. Hence, we would like to have some sort of smart fire detector that will sense and alarm or address the incident by stopping the process- and where applicable we can respond efficiently. With the process set-up suggesting that Laser will produce smoke and flame, but ‘how much is too much’ or could possibly be a danger is still yet to be understood/known. Please, if you can send one of your colleagu…

I have been approached by a local charity with regard to an annual event they hold, where they have historically experienced a number of malicious activated false alarms. Due to the nature of the event (Disco & Band Entertainment) the sound level can be quite high and renders the ability of the alarm system to be heard useless. A proposal has been put together to replace the venue alarm system with a manual procedure for raising the alarm and informing the event attendees and initiating an evacuation if required. I would like thoughts and legalities of the following proposal. I can see reason to use a safe system that will be heard and acted upon by …

I have a ground floor flat in a block of 6, each flat has a fire alarm which is linked to the fire alarm panel of the building. The managing company who holds the Freehold are responsible for the regular maintenance of the building but not regular maintenance within each individual flat. However they carry out annual alarm inspections of fire alarms within each individual flat. If the company is responsible for the fire safety of the building and each flat has a linked fire alarm to a central fire control panel, would this make the company responsible for the repair and maintenance of each linked alarm within each individual flats? Thanks in advance for you assistan…

I run a private members club which currently has no fire detection equipment (we also live here. Should the club legally have a fire alarm?

Sirs, are you able to tell me, if i have my property regularly checked by a fire alarm engineer, do i have to replace the 3.4a 12v fire panel batteries on a routine / aged basis, or are they simply checked regularly until they no longer pass a 'fitness test'? Regards - Nigel

Is it law to have the zone chart next to the fire alarm? Debbie

Hi to all.just taken over a siemens fc10 with a mixture of menvier and apollo 65 smokes.zone 9 was disabled and since renabling it random heads go off for no reason .james

hello there I hope you will be able to help. My whole fire alarm career I have been told and carried out battery calculations with the understanding the end result is per battery for eg if the formulae came out at 6.1ah I would supply 2x 7ah batteries is this correct? Or is it an overall calculation for total of both batteries so 2x 3.2ah batts. I have just started at a new company that are just starting on fire and have been questioned on this. many thanks Jamie

I have been searching for noise level at the fire alarm panel. I know that the fire alarm within buildings is 65 dB(A) and in some cases this maybe lowered to 60 dB (A). I look forward to your reply.

I am doing a report on some defects and one includes an alleged defective control panel . What would be the life expectancy of a panel would this be 5 years or more if maintained properly. If not maintained would this be less than 3.5 years.

We have a zp2 panel, and on the loop is 3 manual call points, 1 of which activates in a fire condition at odd times, without being physically activated. What could be the cause of this? Your assistance is appreciated.

Hi All. I am sure this has been asked before, but I seem to be having trouble locating any info. A long time ago everyone down my way and probably other places to, were installing panels that could be run of a 3 wire system. (both the sounders and the detection sharing the neutral). I stopped doing this years ago but I have a client that I do a lot servicing for, yet another engineer does the installs and he is still using this 3 wire method. I am pretty sure the regs changed with the introduction of EN54, but I cant find any text to back this up. I would like to point this out to my client and if necessary ad it to my reports. Would anybody have any kno…

On an L3 fire system, does it require a panel or an interlinked system would suffice?

Our sheltered flats have smokes in every room and a heat in the kitchen. In some flats we have had multiple issues. It may be that we will have to disconnect and just have detectors in the hallway and bedroom. First I want to try reconnect all sensors but disconnecting the link between sensors so only the offending sensor activates. I have tried to Google for further information on what the BS5839 states and it said somewhere that they do not advise disconnecting the link between detectors. Can you advise if this is the case? I am trying to make sure we are legally covered in the event of an incident whilst trying to take a common sense approach with the residents needs…

Please can you advise how often fire alarm cabling should be tested?