What is Involved in a Certification of a Fire Alarm System From Design to Installation?

Before you start planning your fire alarm system you need to take into account the standards and legal obligations such as BS 5839. This is the British Standard that relates to fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings in particular which focuses on the code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems.

For commercials premises, the standard is BS5839 part 1 and in domestic premises they are covered by BS5839 part 6. The information for these are only recommendations but being compliant with standards means you will be compliant with the relevant legislation. The legislation is the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order for England and Wales, the Fire (Scotland) Act and the Fire Safety Regulations (Northern Ireland). This legislation states that each premises has a responsibility to ensure all systems are designed, installed and verified with the relevant certification. This is the role of the person within the organisation deemed as the responsible person.

As the responsible person the duty of care will lie with you to make sure the system is verified, the work being carried out is done by a competent person and you sign off each stage of the fire alarm system. At Fire Detection Shop we can help you with these stages.

When planning a fire alarm system it is split into three stages:

1. Design

2. Installation

3. Commissioning / verification

When designing your fire alarm system you will need to consider the following:

• Category and type of system needed – conventional / addressable and what area of the premise needs to be covered

• What action is to be taken if a fire occurs

• Will other occupants of a multi occupancy building be affected

• Whether other work is needed to be done at the same time

• What method is in place to call the fire brigade and their likely time to attend

• Will the type of occupants or activity in the building require a greater number of manual call points than normal

The designer will need to be informed of the above when designing your fire alarm system along with other information that will be discussed with you.

Along with the design, at Fire Detection Shop we can also install your fire alarm system with our competent and experienced engineers. It is important that if different companies/people complete the design and installation that the design certificate is followed exactly. If any alterations are made, these must be fully documented and justified by the installer, before commissioning.

Our experienced engineers can also commission / verify the system which at a minimum involves a full test of all of the devices on the system along with a handover to the system.

The engineer will verify after the commission that the system meets the design certification, is installed to meet the installation certification and operates in all aspects of the design and specification. Text labels will be applied to an addressable system along with cause and effect parameters if they are needed. The cause and effect will also be tested to ensure the system works correctly. A full sounder test will also be completed with information provided to the customer where the sound may be lacking along with solutions to remedy the sound pressure levels.

Upon completion of the commissioning / verification a full handover will be given to the customer along with certification provided with documentation.

If you have any questions about our certification of fire alarm systems including design, installation and commissioning or to book your service with us, call us on 0800 999 2661 or email us on: [email protected].