Alarm testing

[davincey]

Once again I find myself turning to the good and knowledgeable folks of the Firenet community for advice.......

My organisation has a large number of converted street properties (houses converted to flats), the majority of which were converted around 1970, so compartmentation is unlikely to be 60 minutes. As raising levels of compartmentation could prove difficult with residents in situ, the logical step is alarm/detection.

In line with Lacors, I am looking at a Grade D combined LD2/LD3 system (mostly 2-3 storey properties) which then leaves the issue of testing. According to BS5839, the system should be tested on a weekly basis but with numbers in excess of 600 properties, this just is not feasible. In my opinion, reducing the testing to monthly in these properties would be acceptable, but this would still mean visiting around 150 properties a week. These buildings do not have caretakers and are rarely visited by our staff.

If anyone knows of any similar situations that I could look to or alternate possible solutions, my hairline and my sanity would be very grateful as they are both being greatly reduced at the moment!!!

[AnthonyB]

You could have the testing contracted out to someone like Metro, but it does depend how tight your budget is!

[nearlythere]

Once again I find myself turning to the good and knowledgeable folks of the Firenet community for advice.......

My organisation has a large number of converted street properties (houses converted to flats), the majority of which were converted around 1970, so compartmentation is unlikely to be 60 minutes. As raising levels of compartmentation could prove difficult with residents in situ, the logical step is alarm/detection.

In line with Lacors, I am looking at a Grade D combined LD2/LD3 system (mostly 2-3 storey properties) which then leaves the issue of testing. According to BS5839, the system should be tested on a weekly basis but with numbers in excess of 600 properties, this just is not feasible. In my opinion, reducing the testing to monthly in these properties would be acceptable, but this would still mean visiting around 150 properties a week. These buildings do not have caretakers and are rarely visited by our staff.

If anyone knows of any similar situations that I could look to or alternate possible solutions, my hairline and my sanity would be very grateful as they are both being greatly reduced at the moment!!!

It is only a recommendation that they are user tested weekly. If you carry out an assessment of the user test regime and can show that monthly is adequate, reasonable and acceptable to your insurance company then do it.

[CivvyFSO]

One part of me wants to say "You are getting plenty of money from 600 properties, and you have not qualified any reason for moving to a monthly test other than you would have difficulty performing what could be considered to be your duty. If I built a 3 storey house next to yours, why should I have to turn up to mine every week to test the alarm when it is easier for me to stay in watching Jerry Springer? If yours are safe with a monthly test, then so are mine. It is almost like me going out and buying 100 cars, then saying that I have too many cars to MOT them ALL." (Half joking, but there is a point in there somewhere)

Then another part of me thinks "How about asking the residents? A small rent reduction for someone flicking a switch once a week might be a fair trade."

From BS5839-6
All Grades of system need to be tested periodically to ensure that there has not been any major failure. This
does not require any specialist knowledge, and can normally be carried out, quite easily, by the occupier of
the dwelling, who will, however, need simple instructions in how to do so.

[kurnal]

Hi Davincey
In answer to your question, assuming that a grade D system is appropriate then the requirements for testing and maintenance are not onerous. Indeed in some grade D systems a test switch or call point can be added to the system to permit routine testing without the need to to access the test buttons on the smoke alarms themselves.

Do you have access to pages 47 and 48 of BS 5839? If not call me and I will read you what it says.

It is absolutely appropriate to use responsible tenants to test the system, you will wish to give them full instructions on how to do this and to cvover your back by asking them to record the tests in a log book. After all it is inevitable- in answer to Civvys point- that any costs involved in testing and maintenance will be shared out as part of the service charges so it will save them all a few bob if they help you to do this. It also encourages fire safety awareness and ownership amongst tenants.

[Oliver Austin]

To begin with, it is easy to neglect about your smoke detector procedure. They carry on doing work, hopefully silently, just about every single 2nd of every single and just about every day. Even so, for the reason that they are frequently operating so very difficult, the fire alarms can gradually fall into disrepair. If your alarm is not battery-operated, it is essential to check the electrical method to make guaranteed that your alarm is still prepared to alert you to a fire. Fire technicians can isolate diverse wiring places of your alarm system to make guaranteed that they however have the electrical power to sound the alert.

[Midland Retty]

Civvy is spot on - the best way is to get a trusty tenant on board to do the testing for you.

In addition to that I would recommend you also task the tenant to check the fire alarm panel daily (where one is fitted), making sure there are no fault lights showing, report back any issues (missing detectors / sounders) inform you of excessive unwanted fire signals etc, and anti social behaviour which might be putting tenants at risk (ie; vandalised fire equipment).

Secondly as Im sure you are aware some tenants are more trust worthy than others, so you would need to monitor them fairly regularly to ensure they are testing / fault reporting as they should be.

With a property portfolio of over 600 non staffed buildings you aren't realistically going to be able to  undertake routine tests any other way.

 

[nearlythere]

To begin with, it is easy to neglect about your smoke detector procedure. They carry on doing work, hopefully silently, just about every single 2nd of every single and just about every day. Even so, for the reason that they are frequently operating so very difficult, the fire alarms can gradually fall into disrepair. If your alarm is not battery-operated, it is essential to check the electrical method to make guaranteed that your alarm is still prepared to alert you to a fire. Fire technicians can isolate diverse wiring places of your alarm system to make guaranteed that they however have the electrical power to sound the alert.

It's you Benz you old so and so. You can't catch us out with just a name change.
You sound more robotic than Steve Austin (6M dollar man) never mind Oly Austin.

Anyone tell me what this means?
i]Fire technicians can isolate diverse wiring places of your alarm system to make guaranteed that they however have the electrical power to sound the alert[/i]

[SeaBass]

I can’t help thinking that Ol’ Olly’s command of the Queens English is somewhat wanting, and he is in fact using an on-line translation tool to translate from his mother tongue to our rather complex lingo.  Either that or he takes to the bottle somewhat earlier than most.   

[nearlythere]

I can’t help thinking that Ol’ Olly’s command of the Queens English is somewhat wanting, and he is in fact using an on-line translation tool to translate from his mother tongue to our rather complex lingo.  Either that or he takes to the bottle somewhat earlier than most.   

Maybe he got fast tracked into membership of the Banter Bar cos he had money to spend. The head Barsteward's rent is due.