BS 5839-1 fire alarm system standard explained

Thursday 15th August 2013

fire-alarm-panel-kits BS 5839 Part 1 ‘Fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings. Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in non-domestic premises‘ is the key Standard for commercial fire alarm systems with central control panels. It helps customers and installers to specify, design, install and maintain fire alarm systems.

It is a substantial document and to help our customers find their way through it we have created a summary of the Standard. The summary covers:

Why might I need a fire detection / fire alarm system for my premises?
What are fire detection and fire alarm systems?
What is meant by ‘category of system’?
What are the main design considerations for an appropriate fire detection / fire alarm system?
What are the main installation issues?
What happens once the installation is complete?
Commissioning, documentation, and certification
Maintaining the system: what is involved?
User’s responsibilities and premises management: who does what?

Safelincs, the UK’s most progressive and customer friendly fire safety company offers its customers nationwide maintenance of fire alarm systems as well as a range of fire alarm system components:

Conventional fire alarm systems
Addressable fire alarm systems
Fire alarm accessories, including specialist infrared and ultraviolet detectors

For quotations for a new fire alarm system, please ring our friendly customer care team on 0800 612 6537.

To arrange your fire alarm system maintenance visit, please ring 0800 612 4827.

Magnetic Locks on Fire Exits

Friday 26th July 2013

Ensuring that unwanted persons are kept out of your building without jeopardising a rapid fire escape from the inside of the building can be difficult. Panic bars are really only suitable for additional fire exits rather than the main entry points of a building. Magnetic locks (also called maglocks or mag locks) can offer here a solution.

Magnetic locks use a strong, electrically powered electromagnet to hold the door closed. If the power fails, or is interrupted by a fire alarm signal, the magnet loses power and releases the door which can then be opened. The door can usually only be released by pressing a button on the INSIDE of the building, although external keypad overrides are available.

We have launched a range of magnetic access control kits from Deedlock that not only keep out uninvited guests, but also link-up with fire detection units to release doors in the event of a fire. These kits are ready to be installed by any electrician.

Magnetic door lock kits can include the following release methods: key fobs and card reader units, release switches, digital keypads and emergency break-glass units. And of course the maglocks can be released automatically by a fire alarm system in case of fire. The maglock devices are powered by a 12V power supply.

For a range of other access door control equipment, take a look at our exit door security range.

P50 Popular at FM Show at NEC

Thursday 30th May 2013

The P50 service free extinguisher turned more than a few heads on the Safelincs stand at the recent Facilities Show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

Facilities managers who attend the annual event are always looking for innovative ways to cut costs and provide better service for their clients. They didn’t take much persuading to see the benefits and potential savings offered by the P50.

Traditional extinguishers require servicing each year but P50s are constructed using a composite material that will not rust or corrode. This protects the contents and no discharge testing or refills are required for ten years. The expensive annual service by an external engineer is no longer necessary– just a straightforward yearly test that can easily be carried out by an organisation’s in-house staff.

After ten years the P50s can be refilled and used for a further ten years.

Safelincs’ managing director, Harry Dewick-Eisele was at the show and had the opportunity to speak to many facilities managers. “Those with responsibility for large estates could see savings running into thousands of pounds,” he said. “A good number were going back to their offices to weigh up how quickly they could replace their existing appliances and start cutting costs.”

Waterloo Homes Install EvacSill Concealed Escape Ladders

Wednesday 24th April 2013

A new housing estate in Louth, Lincolnshire installed 5 EvacSill concealed fire escape ladders. The estate was built with timber-framed, two- storey houses, aimed mainly at families. evacsill-ladder To allow quick and safe escape from the upper floors, EvacSill ladders were installed.

Developed and manufactured by Safelincs, these fire escape ladder systems are fitted hidden in the inner wall of a house. In an emergency, the window sill is pulled out and the ladder is deployed. EvacSill escape ladders are available for timber-framed as well as brick-built houses. While they are mainly aimed at new-build homes, they can also be retro-fitted. The EvacSill ladders are always accessible, can never be mis-laid or lost and offer a rapid escape.

Exit Hardware – The “What’s What” Guide!

Monday 4th March 2013

What’s it for?

Exit hardware devices provide users of a building with a safe means of escape without compromising the security of the building by persons without authorisation. For doors where access is still required from the outside, access locks and digital locks (also known as OADs or Outside Access Devices) can be installed on the outside of the door to allow authorised personnel to enter using a key or fob.

What is Emergency Exit Equipment?

Generally installed in non-public areas, emergency latches and bolts are used where escape routes are well known by the building’s occupants and the exit hardware is familiar. Because the area is familiar to the building’s occupants, these emergency exit devices usually consist of a push pad with either a rim latch, or a combination of latch and shoot bolt for additional security. Where this type of emergency hardware is used, it should be certified to EN 179.

What is Panic Hardware?

Panic hardware, including panic bars (also called panic latches and panic bolts) are suitable for public areas where occupants are less familiar with escape routes. Panic hardware is designed to cover the full face of an escape door so that in an evacuation, with the ensuing panic, the doors will always open (even if people are pushed hard against the door). All products suitable for ‘panic’ situations should be certified to EN 1125.

What is a Latch or Bolt?

Latches and bolts are two terms that are often used when discussing exit hardware for fire exit doors. The terms can be misconstrued but are actually quite simple, and we have all seen examples of them in buildings. Many push bars (panic hardware) and push pads (emergency hardware) use a rim latch, which has a similar appearance to a standard door latch, to keep the door shut when not in use. When the push bar / pad is pushed, the rim latch retracts and allows the door to open. For additional security, some push bars / pads feature vertical shoot bolts to keep the door in a locked position when not in use, and retract from the frame at the top and the bottom of the door when the push bar or the push pad is depressed.

For more information on a range of panic bar and emergency pad devices take a look at our fire exit equipment range.

Please note: The Redlam Panic Bolt, while called a ‘Panic’ bolt by everybody in the industry, is actually only an ‘Emergency’ bolt and should therefore not be used in public spaces.

What To Do If Your Clothing Catches Fire

Friday 8th February 2013

According to statistics published by the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service in 2012, around 80 people die each year in in the UK after their clothing catches fire.

If your own clothing catches fire you should take the following course of action:

STAY where you are—moving or running feeds air to the flames and worsens the fire.
DROP to the floor—if you stand up, the fire can burn your face. Fold your arms high on your chest to protect your face.
ROLL slowly on the floor or ground, in a rug or blanket if you can.
COOL off as soon as possible with water for first and second degree burns. *

If you are in the position of helping somebody else whose clothing has caught fire you should apply the steps above. In addition there is one type of fire extinguisher that can be recommended for such a situation. See the video.

The Jewel E-Series Water Mist Fire Extinguisher is a new type of extinguisher, which works by dispersing microscopic ‘dry’ water mist particles to suppress fires and extinguish burning materials, The speed at which it takes effect, combined with the rapid cooling it induces, make it the perfect extinguisher to have to hand should a fire of this nature break out.

Jewel E-Series Water Mist Fire Extinguishers are the first broad-spectrum fire extinguishers. They can be used on almost every common fire including deep fat fryer fires. They are perfect for kitchens, as they contain no harmful substances and leave no residues. The extinguisher’s supersonic nozzle disperses microscopic ‘dry’ water mist particles to suppress fires and extinguish burning materials. The 35kV dielectrical test ensures that the extinguishers can be safely used near electrical equipment.

*In a serious fire room temperatures in a fire can be 100 degrees at floor level and rise to 600 degrees at eye level. This heat can melt clothes to a victim’s skin. Never peel the clothing off – leave the treatment to medical professionals.

Warning about pre-commissioned fire extinguishers

Monday 4th February 2013

We occasionally get asked by our customers, if we could pre-service, or pre-commission our fire extinguishers for them prior to shipping. This practice, explicitly forbidden for all registered fire safety companies, involves a visual inspection and then labeling of an extinguisher with a signed off service label at the RETAILER’S warehouse. While this sounds like a clever practice, it is a service we would never offer to our customers. Apart from the fact that the British Standard BS5306-3:2009 specifically requests on-site commissioning to be completed AFTER all transport involved, the practice of pre-commissioning puts the customer both at the risk of injury and exposes them to substantial legal liabilities.

The main risk to the functioning of a fire extinguisher, and the reason for the requirement for extinguishers to be commissioned on site is damage during transport.

pre-delivery-inspection

Handles can get bent with the biggest risk being the safety pin being bent to a degree where it cannot be removed in an emergency. The latter event happens when cheap fire extinguishers rest on their heads in transit. Be careful when purchasing extinguishers online from less professional suppliers, as they often use mild steel pins that bend easily. Safelincs’ fire extinguishers, on the other hand, are 100% protected in transit by special head protectors or the use of stainless steel pins with extended diameters so that the pins can never bend in transit.

Another transport risk is leakage of CO2 fire extinguishers in transit. CO2 fire extinguishers do not have pressure valves and only a careful weight test during commissioning (removing the horn and measuring with precision scales) will reveal any loss in pressure and weight.

The other strong rationale for proper on-site commissioning is that customers require a certificate by an engineer to state that their premises are covered in accordance to the British Standard. A sticker on the extinguisher does not certify that the extinguisher is installed in the correct position or that it is in fact the right extinguisher for the risks present at the location.

All of this means that by taking a shortcut buying pre-commissioned extinguishers you are putting yourself at risk of liability if a faulty extinguisher is the cause of a failed attempt to put out a fire, resulting in loss of property and possibly injury or death. An insurance company might not pay out for damages, if the extinguishers on site were not correctly commissioned.

Safelincs has long been addressing this issue and offers all its extinguishers with an optional ON-SITE commissioning or installation/commissioning service. Our BAFE certified engineers will visit you and commission or install and commission the extinguishers at your premises. If the commissioning and installation option is chosen, our engineer will survey your site to make sure you have the correct extinguisher provision, fit the extinguishers brackets in the correct location, certify the extinguishers and label and sign each extinguisher. You are then fully covered for all eventualities.

Long-term effects of CO poisoning

Wednesday 23rd January 2013

One of the speakers at the launch of Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week at the House of Lords in November 2012 was Dr Steven White. He gave a very interesting presentation on the long-term effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, some of which are only recently being fully realised.

Dr White has co-written a factsheet that is published on the website of Headway, the charity that works to improve life after brain injury. With Headway’s permission we reproduce a short extract here.

Like other types of anoxic brain injury, acute CO poisoning may lead to quite severe long-term neurological problems, with disturbances in memory, language, cognition, mood and behaviour. The damage to the basal ganglia, which is a particular feature of CO poisoning, may lead to a movement disorder resembling Parkinson’s disease.

An unusual feature of acute CO poisoning is the delayed deterioration in neurological condition which may be seen in some cases, occurring anything from a few days to as long as five to six weeks after the initial exposure. The reason for this is not entirely clear, but changes in the white matter of the brain seem to be involved. It has been suggested that these may result from demyelination, in which there is loss of the fatty, insulating myelin sheath of the nerve axons, therefore impairing their ability to conduct electrical nerve impulses.

Chronic CO exposure

Chronic (persistent and long-term) exposure to lower levels of CO, as can occur with faulty domestic boilers, may go unrecognised. The symptoms include milder versions of those seen in acute CO poisoning, with headache, nausea, dizziness, light-headedness, fatigue and sleepiness, difficulty concentrating and memory problems, as well as changes in mood.

People may be aware that something is wrong, but be unable to identify exactly what is the matter, or may attribute the problems to overwork, stress or depression. If symptoms disappear while away at work, reappearing on returning home, or if other people in the same premises develop similar symptoms, it may become more obvious that there is an environmental cause.

Although most people seem to recover following chronic low level CO exposure when the source is removed, it can also lead to anoxic brain injury. There have been some documented cases of subtle Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) abnormalities and long-term neuropsychological effects.

Treatment of CO poisoning

Treatment of acute exposure to CO involves immediate removal from the source of the poisoning and administration of 100% oxygen, together with general supportive medical care.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is sometimes advocated for severe cases of CO poisoning and involves giving pure oxygen at increased pressures in a hyperbaric chamber. It has been suggested that this may improve the long-term neurological outcome, although it remains controversial. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a specialised technique, which is only available in a few centres. It may also be associated with complications of its own and it is not used routinely.

To read the full factsheet go here

More information about carbon monoxide poisoning and detection can be found on our websites.

Extending Ei140 + Ei160 series smoke alarm groups

Wednesday 12th September 2012

Many homes and small businesses are equipped with mains powered smoke alarms to BS5839 part 6 Grade D. These alarms are usually linked with cable and have to be installed by electricians. When increasing the number of smoke and heat alarms at a later date, it is costly and disruptive to run extra cable to the additional alarms, decorations are damaged and dust is created.

With the Aico Ei140 series (Ei141, Ei144, Ei146) and the Aico Ei160 series (Ei161, Ei164, Ei166), adding more smoke alarms to the group of alarms can be very simple using radio-interlinking.

Just one existing smoke alarm is taken off the ceiling and its existing base plate replaced with the RF base plate Ei168. This exchange, while very swift and simple, should be carried out by an electrician. The old alarm then simply slots onto the newly fitted base plate. Now you can install any of the radio-interlinked smoke alarm ranges from AICO/Ei in the additional rooms you wish to protect. The new radio-linked alarms will then communicate fully with the old system. This means that if any of the smoke alarms goes off (old or new alarms), the rest of the alarms will sound an alarm as well.

You have three choices to achieve this extension with radio-interlinked smoke alarms:

1) Install more mains powered alarms together with RF base plates. Their electrical power supply can be drawn from the nearest light fitting. This solution will require an electrician for all the work. However, this is a solution that will guarantee the Grade D rating of your installation. There is obviously no cabling required between the units, as the radio signal will communicate between the new alarms and, through the single converted old smoke alarm, with the old system. There are additional add-ons you can include in this system, such as RF manual break points and handheld controls for testing and, in the case of the Ei160 series, even for silencing and to locate the source of an alarm.

List of Alarms and add-ons available:

Series installed already	Mains powered RF Smoke alarms available	Manual break points available (optional). Wireless and 10 year battery	Handheld controls available (optional)
Ei140	Ei141 with RF Ei144 with RF Ei146 with RF	Ei407	Ei410TRF handheld test fob (tests interconnection, only)
Ei160	Ei161 with RF Ei164 with RF Ei166 with RF	Ei407	Ei410 handheld test, hush and locator Ei411H wall mounted test, hush and locator

2) If you want to save the cost for the electrician and want to speed up the installation process, you can install battery operated radio-interlinked alarms. One of the radio-interlinked families is the Ei600 series, which comes with a sealed-in ten year power supply. This system is usually accepted as a Grade D system, even though formally, as it does not contain mains power, it is not classified as a grade D system. If you have to satisfy a Building Inspector or the fire service, it makes therefore good sense to get their agreement before installing the system.

List of battery operated alarms and add-ons available:

Series installed already	Battery operated RF smoke alarms	Manual break points available (optional). Wireless and 10 year battery	Handheld control (optional)
Ei140	Ei605RF optical alarm Ei603RF heat alarm	Ei407	Ei410TRF handheld test fob (tests interconnection, only)
Ei160	Ei605RF optical alarm Ei603RF heat alarm	Ei407	Ei410 handheld test, hush and locator Ei411H wall mounted test, hush and locator

3) If you are not required to install in accordance to BS5839 Part 6 Grade D (eg older houses built prior to introduction of Building Regulations), you can also use radio-interlinked smoke alarms with alkaline backup batteries which must be replaced every year or two. This is of course the cheapest way of expanding your existing smoke alarm system. Again, all alarms will go off together, both the new as well as the old alarms.

List of radio-interlinked, battery operated alarms and add-ons available:

Series installed already	Battery operated RF smoke alarms	Manual break points available (optional). Wireless and 10 year battery	Handheld control (optional)
Ei140	Ei3100RF ionisation alarm Ei3105RF optical alarm Ei3103RF heat alarm	Ei407	Ei410TRF handheld test fob (tests interconnection, only)
Ei160	Ei3100RF ionisation alarm Ei3105RF optical alarm Ei3103RF heat alarm	Ei407	Ei410TRF handheld test fob (tests interconnection, only)

What power consumption do emergency lights have?

Tuesday 26th June 2012

When comparing power consumption of emergency lighting, and more specifically comparing LED lighting with standard lighting, it is important to understand some of the terms used and what they actually mean in this context. Sometimes you will see the power consumption documented in W (Watts) and sometimes it will be stated in VA (VoltAmperes). Whilst this looks confusing, it is comforting that both terms are actually identical. Multiplying the Voltage (V) of the electrical supply with the Amperage (A), which represents the current flowing through the light, gives you VA (VoltAmperes) which represents power consumption and is actually the same as the ‘Wattage’ (W). So VA equals W; they are just different ways of saying the same thing.

For this blog we will be comparing a CS8 maintained emergency bulkhead with an X-GSA LED maintained emergency bulkhead as they are very similar units, although they have a very different power consumption (also the CS8 produces light output of 100 lumens, whilst the X-GSA produces a slightly lower 85 lumens. This difference, though, is negligible.).

The CS8 contains an 8W T5 lamp which, as the name suggests, consumes 8 Watts. The ballast (the electronics that run the unit and the trickle charge for the backup battery) consumes 12 Watts, which means the CS8 in maintained mode consumes 20W.

The X-GSA contains 12 white LEDs which together consume 0.9W. The ballast consumes 2.6W, which means the whole unit in maintained mode consumes 3.5W.
That is a difference of 16.5W, which is huge when you consider that maintained lights are lit constantly. So, a CS8 in its maintained mode is consuming over 5 times more energy every hour than the X-GSA!

It is also important to know that LED emergency lights last substantially longer than fluorescent tubes. An LED bulb will last over 5 times longer than a traditional fluorescent light.

Generally speaking LED emergency lighting is more expensive than the traditional equivalent, but when you factor in the substantially lower power consumption and the lower maintenance needs of LED lights, they are actually more cost effective in the long term.