I recently received a question regarding emergency generator testing in a medical facility that touched on testing frequency and what defines a method of off site monitoring. Here’s the question: My local AHJ expects my Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) to run the generator weekly. They utilize NFPA 1 (2012) and NFPA 72 (2010). Both NFPA 1 in [Read More]
If an elevator lobby detector activates, can I selectively exclude that lobby and have the cars still run?
Generally, an elevator’s FEO doesn’t allow the cabs to run once activated, so a selective application usually isn’t an option. I say usually because hospitals employ a Code Blue elevator control system to override the elevator FEO in life saving situations. That’s an extra cost on a more robust elevator controller and obviously doesn’t apply [Read More]
Simultaneous Elevator Recall Activation
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I recently received a good question through the comment section regarding one of our elevator recall blogs. The question was: Is it proper to use one addressable fire input into an elevator recall point then parallel out of this point into another separate elevator controller recall input? A: If separate controllers handle cars in the [Read More]
Fire Alarm and Emergency Voice System Testing and Inspection
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In our last post, we talked about why it’s important to use a third party to test a smoke detector’s sensitivity level. In this post, we’ll cover another area of concern: verification of outputs. In a simple system that just activates the horn/strobes, that may seem to be an easy task. However, there is always more than [Read More]
Testing & Inspecting Fire Alarm & Emergency Voice Systems
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A fire alarm system is required to be tested regularly, the results of which are reviewed by the fire department. When scheduling a test of a facility’s fire alarm system, property managers have a vested interest in maintaining safety compliance and limiting their liability exposure while keeping an eye on operating costs. Operating cost reduction might seem [Read More]
Smoke Detector Testing
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At Affiliated Fire Systems, we often get asked about a smoke detector’s lifespan . Specifically, when should a building manager replace smoke detectors? There is no hard and fast lifespan for a commercial smoke detector. To be clear, commercial smoke detectors are connected to a fire alarm panel, not the battery operated devices you can [Read More]
Elevator Recall Activation
I recently had a question asked about whether two smoke detectors are required to activate simultaneously in a single elevator lobby in order for cab recall to be initiated. The answer is there is no current national code that requires two detectors to activate before recall occurs. The two detector activation is what we call ‘cross zoning’, and [Read More]
High Rise Fire Safety in Chicago, Part IV
As a recap, in our first post on this subject, we defined how the Chicago High Rise Ordinance originated. In our second post, we looked at why the compliancy rate was low. In our previous post, we discussed how a residential high rise life safety score is determined. Let’s now look at what the impact [Read More]
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