Fire Alarm Testing

[jakespop]

I would appreciate any information on how fire alarms are being routinely tested at hospitals. I am an advisor for a large acute hospital. The fire alarm is tested weekly but disruption being caused due to amount of devices being tested and duration. Proposals put forward by Estates to test two devices in each building weekly but only one zone in each building. This would mean the alarm is heard weekly but each zone would be tested once every thirteen weeks.
Can anyone point me to the bit in 5839 that talks about "13 weeks" and percentage of devices to be tested or is it not there anymore.

Any feedback appreciated.

[DPGB]

5839 simply says that a different call point is operated each week.

section 44.2
d) A different manual call point should be used at the time of every weekly test, so that all manual call points in the building are tested in rotation over a prolonged period. There is no maximum limit for this period (e.g. in a system with 150 manual call points, the user will test each manual call point every 150 weeks). The result of the weekly test and the identity of the manual call point used should be recorded in the system log book [see 40.2d)].

[David Rooney]

It used to be a 13 week rotation under the 1988 BS but was dropped in the 2002 version.....

[lingmoor]

just picked up on this...are you saying (or 5839 saying) that it could be 3 years before a call point is tested again?

For those that work in hospitals, can you tell me how often each 'zone' is tested? and what is the longest interval period you have before an individual ward/ department might hear the fire alarm sounding on a test

cheers

[nearlythere]

I would appreciate any information on how fire alarms are being routinely tested at hospitals. I am an advisor for a large acute hospital. The fire alarm is tested weekly but disruption being caused due to amount of devices being tested and duration. Proposals put forward by Estates to test two devices in each building weekly but only one zone in each building. This would mean the alarm is heard weekly but each zone would be tested once every thirteen weeks.
Can anyone point me to the bit in 5839 that talks about "13 weeks" and percentage of devices to be tested or is it not there anymore.

Any feedback appreciated.

You are probably thinking about doing a portion of the annual and periodic inspection and test every quarter which probably best suits large systems. (Some think the whole system is tested every 3 months). If doing it this way you still must end up with the whole system inspected and tested annually and the periodic inspection and test as per assessment but no later than every 6 months. Getting the procedure up and running to achieve this objective is the difficult bit.
Thisd of course is different to the User Check which requires one call point actuation every week not forgetting those on night shifts.

[nearlythere]

just picked up on this...are you saying (or 5839 saying) that it could be 3 years before a call point is tested again?

For those that work in hospitals, can you tell me how often each 'zone' is tested? and what is the longest interval period you have before an individual ward/ department might hear the fire alarm sounding on a test

cheers

just picked up on this...are you saying (or 5839 saying) that it could be 3 years before a call point is tested again?

Or even longer for User Check. The annual inspection and test requires every point to be tested annually.


For those that work in hospitals, can you tell me how often each 'zone' is tested? and what is the longest interval period you have before an individual ward/ department might hear the fire alarm sounding on a test.

This can be twice with all call points in a zone operated for the annual test and one call point on a circuit no more than every 6 months for the periodic test
cheers

[lingmoor]

cheers NT