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9 flat fire alarm


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Hi guys. 

 

Sorry to be a pain..

 

i have an an interesting question. We have been asked to quote for a fire alarm system to cover 9 separate flats over 4 floors. Smoke and heats in each flat and communal areas.. I have been given a spec to follow via the architect which shoes smokes by the bedroom and heats in the kitchen.. all linked up to a main panel down by the main door...

 

im not 100% convinced with this system as I have had issues with false activations before from people setting things off accidentally and meaning a full evac of the whole building..

 

would you all do what is requested and supply a full addressable or conventional system with full integration in the flats and the communal areas?? Smokes, heats and carbon.. or would you do communal areas only with stand alone fire alarms in each flat such as the domestic aico smoke and heat detectors? 

 

Thanks in advance

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I worked on a council program where communal fire alarms, such as you describe,were being removed due to total evac situations in the middle of the night, no7 comes home pissed and burns toast or whatever.

They have now made the flats safe to stay, and installed stand alone mains interlinked-aico-as it happens into all properties, best bit is the majority of the communal systems were less than 10 years old.

It's yet to be seen if the safe to stay approach will work in the event of a real fire scenario, human nature says try to get out not sit and await rescue services.

Edited by Rulland
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Hi Rulland..

 

the logic i am thinking is to have a full conventional fire alarm in the hallways and have a fire alarm detector in each flat by the front door with a sounder and maybe a beacon. While inside the flats they get the electrician to install aico fire alarms. 

 

What would you do in this situation?

 

cheere

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36 minutes ago, Mattmasters said:

Hi Rulland..

 

the logic i am thinking is to have a full conventional fire alarm in the hallways and have a fire alarm detector in each flat by the front door with a sounder and maybe a beacon. While inside the flats they get the electrician to install aico fire alarms. 

 

What would you do in this situation?

 

cheere

 

Exactly how it is round our way in most housing authority places, proper system in communal that extends to an all-in-one just inside the front door of each flat. Seems to work OK, and at least does give some warning when the alky falls asleep with a pan on the stove, eventually when it boils dry and burns it will ring ALL the flats after they've ignored 10 mins of 'that tw**t nexts doors f**kin' alarm going off again'...

So, I've decided to take my work back underground.... to stop it falling into the wrong hands

 

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Not sure I like the idea of only interlinked protection in the hallways... I can see your view Rulland but I feel after reading the regs it would require a little more to satisfy the fire authority here.. 

 

from what im reading it only requires communal detectors, emergency access call points and one smoke / sounder in each flat.. 

 

i also like the sound of the hush buttons suggested by sixwheeledbeast... but not sure the landlord would like them to turn their alarms off..

 

thanks for for the help guys.. also booked onto am FIA course to hopefully cut the questions down..

 

cheers guys.

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Matt, i probably didn't explain correctly.

Most flats had one standalone smoke in the living room, heat possibly, in kitchen and a communal smoke adjacent to front door with sounder, sometimes break glass.

There was then smokes and bgs on communal landings.

I removed all communal gear completely, so no detection etc on landings or in flats.

Flats existing standalone stuff was modified to mains interlinked. 

Prior to these mods, all flats had to be made 1 hour fire rated, attics, risers, electrical enclosures, extract ducts, cable routes, anything between floors or walls that could allow fire to migrate.

 

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19 hours ago, Mattmasters said:

 

i also like the sound of the hush buttons suggested by sixwheeledbeast... but not sure the landlord would like them to turn their alarms off..

 

 

I found these hush buttons to be a clever way of doing flats.

If your flat is activated only your flat sounds for a period of time, you can Hush your own alarm about 3 times before a full evac is triggered. If you clear the smoke from the room within the hush button period all will reset avoiding an evac.

Communal areas would as default trigger a full evac on the systems I fitted but if necessary these could be RoR detectors or controlled with C&E, all down to the RA etc.

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All the retirement places round here are stay-put anyway, christ the state of some of the old codgers they'd only be halfway down their own corridor before the water fairies declared all-clear...

 

When most of the places were built in the 70s to 90s, they NEVER imagined the average age of the residents would be near 90... Because back then they weren't, if you weren't dead at 70 something

you'd almost certainly spend your last few years in a nursing home, that's how it was for most anyway.

So, I've decided to take my work back underground.... to stop it falling into the wrong hands

 

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