Modern fire protection systems are comprised of three main components — fire detection, alarms and notifications, and suppression, all of which must function together to provide the necessary fire protection for a given building. Designing a fire alarm and notification system requires an integrated approach that includes a comprehensive analysis of the entire fire protection system. This analysis is necessary to gain a thorough understanding of how all the main components of the fire protection system will work together. This analysis needs to be conducted before the system is installed.

Having an experienced designer involved from the beginning will help to ensure the fire alarm system will be properly integrated with existing or new fire detection and suppression systems. However, the best approach is to have all the right people — the building owners and managers, architects, engineers, contractors, and consultants — involved in the planning and design process.

Remember, fire alarm system design can be impacted by any number of requirements. Having all the key players at the table reduces the chance of missing some requirements that could result in expensive modifications down the road. The last thing anyone wants is to get the system installed and ready for testing, only to find it doesn’t meet an important but unknown regulatory requirement.

Building owners today have more options than ever before to achieve many of the goals noted earlier, due in large part to advancements in technology and their applications to the fire safety industry. Let’s take a closer look at how:

BETTER FIRE SAFETY

We can also benefit from the use of Internet technology to meet an owner’s goal for better fire protection and reduced property loss. For example, the availability of wireless fire detection systems allows for monitoring in areas, such as the exterior envelope of a building, that used to be too expensive or physically impossible to monitor before. They can also drastically reduce building management costs, allowing a single person to monitor several buildings.

The Internet also allows for remote monitoring and control techniques that can provide the earliest possible detection of a fire and identify where in the building the fire is burning so firefighters can get there faster and know exactly where to go to fight the fire more effectively at its source.

FEWER FALSE ALARMS

False alarms are bad for people and bad for business. At worst, they create complacency that can result in people ignoring a real alarm. They can also be very costly, potentially resulting in Occupational Safety Hazard Administration (OSHA) fines when employees do not leave the building as required when an alarm sounds and fire department fees when firefighters respond to a false alarm.

Fortunately, many early detection devices that can trigger a fire alarm now have sensors that can distinguish smoke and fire from other interfering signals, such as steam and dust, which can trigger a false alarm. There are also advanced fire control panels on the market today that allow real-time control via the Internet, automatic fault detection, and diagnosis that can quickly differentiate between a real fire and false alarms.

EASE OF MAINTENANCE AND LONGEVITY OF THE SYSTEM

With today’s computerized fire alarm controls, building owners can now proactively maintain their systems, often saving the cost of additional trips for onsite repairs and reducing — or possibly eliminating — the cost of conducting a fire watch when the system is down.

These systems can provide advanced notification when a component in the system is beginning to fail, allowing it to be replaced before it fails and triggers the need for a fire watch. Many of the newer detection systems on the market can also reduce operational costs by providing maintenance alerts that recognize specific smoke detectors in need of cleaning. This eliminates the need to remove and clean all of them just to find the ones that are causing the problem.

Pertaining to longevity, a good fire safety engineer will work with well-established manufacturers and distributors that have an excellent track record for maintaining the availability of parts that could be needed to repair the system over time.

SCALABILITY TO ACCOMMODATE FUTURE CHANGES IN USE AND OCCUPANCY

Changes in the use or occupancy of a building can result in compliance issues and a fire alarm system that no longer provides adequate protection. If future changes are expected, fire safety engineers can design a fire alarm system with this in mind, providing a flexible infrastructure that includes the proper wire size and additional circuits distributed in a way that will accommodate future growth and change.

ABILITY TO USE THE SYSTEM FOR OTHER TYPES OF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

Many facilities have the need for a more comprehensive emergency communication system that not only sounds an alarm in the event of a fire but also provides voice notification to occupants in other types of emergency situations. While traditional fire alarm systems use horns, there are newer systems on the market today that use speakers instead, allowing for a much broader range of communication.

Regulation Changes Don’t Have to be Costly if You’re Prepared

Perhaps one of the most convincing reasons to design a fire alarm system that goes above and beyond the minimum requirements from the start is the fact that fire codes and other applicable regulations can and do change. Changes that are made retroactively can trigger potentially very expensive alterations in a fire alarm system.