Bs 5839 Part 1 2002 Pdf Files
Last amended in 2008, BS 5839-1: 2002 has been renamed BS 5839-1: 2013: Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in non-domestic premises, emphasising that the domestic arena is definitely not within its scope. However, Part 6 continues to cite Part 1 for specifications in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and sheltered housing, as well as providing technical information at a greater depth for all aspects of fire alarm systems using a panel to BS. BS5839 - Fire Alarm Systems - Free download as Word Doc (.doc), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. CATEGORIES OF SYSTEM BS 5839:Part 1:2002 like the 1988 Standard Categorises Fire Alarm Systems to satisfy one, or both, of two principle objectives The Protection of Life and The Protection of. BS 5839-1:2017 -Fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings. Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in non-domestic premises. BS 5839-1:2013 - Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in non-domestic premises.
Bs 5839 1 2002
Mike Floyd and Don Scott update us on recent revisions to a series of British standards applying to automatic fire detection systems.THE BRITISH Standards Institution (BSI) recently released new editions of all three of its commonly used BS 5839-series standards applying to automatic fire detection (AFD) systems – namely Parts 1, 6 and 8 (BS 5839-1, -6 and -8). Full technical revisions have not been carried out, so most of the changes relate to supporting references, management nomenclature and terminology. However, in BS 5839-1, the maximum height usage of certain devices has been extended significantly, following research findings.Last amended in 2008, BS 5839-1: 2002 has been renamed BS 5839-1: 2013: Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of systems in non-domestic premises, emphasising that the domestic arena is definitely not within its scope. However, Part 6 continues to cite Part 1 for specifications in houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) and sheltered housing, as well as providing technical information at a greater depth for all aspects of fire alarm systems using a panel to BS EN 54-2 and -4.BS 5839-6: 2004 has become BS 5839-6: 2013: Code of practice for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and fire alarm systems in domestic premises.BS 5839-8: 2008 has been replaced by BS 5839-8: 2013: Code of practice for the design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of voice alarm systems. This revision is more limited, principally to cable sizes for certain amplifier types.The new editions of Part 1 and Part 6 are explained in greater detail below by Mike Floyd and Don Scott.Part 1 revisionsRevisions to Part 1 were designed to reflect lessons learned from the 2004 Rosepark care home fire in Scotland (at Uddingston, Lanarkshire), in which 14 elderly residents died.
They also reflect the Building Research Establishment (BRE)/Fire Industry Association (FIA) research on the use of beams and aspirating smoke detection (ASD) in high ceiling applications.Rosepark responsesA few days before the fire at the Rosepark care home, the fire alarm panel had been replaced, but staff had not received any training on the different layout of indication information. Only text descriptions of zones, which were poor and confusing, were available at the panel. The guidance in the British Standard (BS) thatfire alarm zones should match the physical layout within the building had not been followed in the original wiring.Staff did not call the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service for at least nine minutes, nor was there any automatic call device attached to the fire panel.
An alarm receiving centre (ARC) connection is now recommended in residential care homes and a check should be made that fire alarm signals are part of the official scope of the provider. A number of providers are only certified for security system response, which has completely different protocols.The use of analogue addressable systems is now recommended in all care homes with more than 10 sleepers, to ensure that the initial outbreak location can be quickly discovered and tracked if fire grows. Rosepark was registered for 42 beds. An adequate zone plan adjacent to the panel – which has been a recommendation in Part 1 for many years – is now emphasised. If this is missing, it should be recorded as a major non-compliance. Any major non-compliances to the standard that are classed as agreed variations should be clearly recorded in the logbook, so that they are readily available for future reference by maintenance companies and any other interested parties. Currently, service engineers cannot easily ascertain what agreed variations are present in most systems they work on, as paperwork is not available.
Good service engineers should flag up any serious non-compliances that they come across, although it is not a requirement for them to make a full review of such problems.Calling the fire and rescue service immediately on initiation of a staff alarm is also now recommended only in care premises. In all other premises using a staff alarm protocol, where alarm signals are initially investigated by nominated staff, the fire and rescue service should not be called until the investigation confirms a fire.The 2008 edition already recommended against using call points to initiate a staff alarm, except in unusual circumstances. Heat detectors and sprinkler systems are now added to this, as the likelihood of a false alarm is very low.Detector heightsFor a number of years, it has been noted that the Standards guidance for the maximum application height of optical beam detectors has been greater than in many other countries in the EU and elsewhere. This figure did not seem to have been based on any earlier research.In parallel, the use of ASD in areas other than computer suites had greatly increased. The guidance already allowed a staged range of heights in other applications, dependent on sensitivity setting. Many manufacturers and installers suspected or even claimed that these limits were probably over-conservative.ASD manufacturers and FIA members commissioned a full technical appraisal of the performance of both ASD and beams used at greater heights than thetable in the last edition.
Both types of device proved that they could provide reliable detection at a range of heights.All detectors should be sited in accordance with the new Table 3 in Part 1.Point type device guidance remains unaltered, except that ‘in-rack’ detection is now recommended for goods in piles over 8m. This arrangement has been used in the sprinkler coverage guidance from the Loss Prevention Council (LPC) and BSI for many years, and prevents fires growing deep within layers of goods and becoming too large before detection.The Standard still recommends beams to be used up to 25m normally, but up to 40m if they have a defined ‘enhanced sensitivity’ better than 35% attenuation of signal. A number of manufacturers already sell beams with this ability.ASD can now be fitted at three brackets of maximum height. A system set at class C sensitivity with at least five sampling holes covers up to 15m, jumping to 25m for one with at least 15 holes.
In addition, a system set at class B sensitivity with at least 15 holes can cover up to 40m ceilings. All these figures apply to a standard ceiling covered in Table 3, column 1.As in the previous edition, column 2 covers ceilings where up to 10% of the area might be at a greater height, such as where lantern lights are present. A further 3m of height is allowed in these circumstances.Complex spaces such as atria have further guidance on the use of beams and ASD. In any space where there is a potential for smoke stratification, detection placed only at ceiling level might not activate until after a serious delay. Previously, the Standard has recommended a number of beams pointing parallel across the space at a lower level, dependent on anticipated fire position and width of space to be covered. The 2013 edition now allows these intermediate beams to be tilted, enabling any smoke released to be detected at a range of heights.The beam at the top of the space is now allowed to use the full extent of the sloping ceiling calculation, which is up to 25% on top of the 7.5m coverage at either side, depending on the angle of the roof.
This gives 18.75m for a 25° slope instead of the previous 17.5m example shown. If ASD is used in a similar situation, a sample pipe running vertically up to the ceiling is recommended, in order to pick up stratified smoke at many heights.Table 4 in the old Standard has finally been removed. This used to allow smoke detection to be sited considerably higher in areas for a category P system if the fire and rescue service would attend in under five minutes.There have been no national guidelines for attendance time since the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004.
All operational matters are evaluated through Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP) by the local fire and rescue service. A building may have ‘rapid attendance’ one year, but not in a subsequent re-evaluation. A number of current high ceiling systems have used the old table with these incorrect assumptions, probably resulting in the very late detection of fires. If the beams were enhanced to the 35% obscuration figure, they would now comply with the new guidance mentioned above and not be confined only to category P coverage.New terminologyA few other minor changes have been made, including nomenclature, as shown below:. ‘care home’ is now ‘residential care premises’. ‘fire service’ is now ‘fire and rescue service’.
‘responsible person’ is now ‘premises management’‘Responsible person’ has been changed to ‘premises management’ to remove conflicts with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety Order) 2005 (FSO) wording, which has a more legalistic meaning. As the old Standard was originally written in 2002, the wording above pre-dated the FSO and the Fire and Rescue Services Act. BSI could have changed these terms in the second amendment in 2008, in order to remove these anomalies sooner.The term ‘double knock’ has been widely used, somewhat loosely, to cover a range of confirmation signalling arrangements by detectors.
The Standard now confines this term to a detector or zone activating for a second time, presumably having been reset in-between. Resetting a system in alarm without any other action can be a very dangerous action, especially on a non-addressable system where all information on location is then lost.With an increasing number of analogue systems in use, each device can signal independently to allow a more advanced arrangement to be used. ‘Co-incidence’ detection is termed as ‘an arrangement designed so that an output is obtained only when at least two independent input triggering signals are present at the same time’.
Presumably, this could still apply when any two zones on a non-addressable system are triggered.Visual alarm devices should now conform to the recently released BS EN 54-23.Annex F contains information extracted from LPCB Code of Practice 0001 with regards to the illumination requirements, patterns and the minimum rating required or achieved for the various mounting scenarios. This contains fairly complicated calculations for coverage of a given device and runs to 17 pages.Provision and installation of the mains power supply to the panel has often been a contentious area in fire alarm work and its responsibility should be clearly stated in final contracts. The contractor must use a double pole switch device that meets the performance in BS 7671: 2008+A1: 2011.
A number of switches available fail to comply.BS EN 54-2 covers the control and indicating equipment aspects of a ‘panel’, while BS EN 54-4 covers the power supply to the system from the panel. BS 5839-1 now warns that there are optional test requirements in BS EN 54-2, such that even a third party certified panel may not fully comply withBS 5839-1. This makes a further demand on specifiers to ensure that any panel does also meet BS 5839-1 in their enquiries, which may raise objections.Compatibility between various components should also be ascertained by designers or installers, and BS EN 54-13 (currently the 2005 edition: Fire detection and fire alarm systems. Compatibility assessment of system components) is now specifically flagged as a reference. Again, this Standard could have been referenced in earlier editions of BS 5839-1.Part six revisionsThe revisions to BS 5839-6: 2013 were introduced to expedite lessons learned from the Rosepark care home fire and were also an opportunity to catch up with newly released Standards to be included as normative references. The 2013 revision only introduces technical and nomenclature changes, and a full revision of the Standard will be produced in due course.Nomenclature changesA new title, BS 5839-6: 2013: Fire detection and fire alarm systems for buildings.
Code of practice for design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of fire detection and fire alarm systems in domestic premises, is designed to better reflect the scope and content of the Standard.In a number of instances, the term ‘comply with’ has been changed to ‘conform to’. As BS 5839-6 is a code of practice, it can only make recommendations and therefore the word ‘should’ is used. It is not a hard and fast set of rules that must be complied with, and so ‘conform to’ is considered more appropriate. In addition to this, in some cases ‘should’ has been replaced by ‘ought to’.There are numerous references to ‘fire detection and alarm’ and ‘fire alarm’ which have been expanded to read ‘fire detection and fire alarm’.In addition, the term ‘premises’ has replaced ‘dwelling’ in most cases.Section 3 changesThe terms and definitions used in Section 3 are taken from BS 5839-1, which sets the standard for fire detection and fire alarm systems in non-residential buildings; BS EN ISO 13943: 2010: Fire safety.