Knowing what fire codes your business must adhere to is an important part of the operations of any business. Whether codes are mandated by ordinances or insurance requirements its important to understand your options so that you are taking preventative measures to ensure the safety of your employees and your business.
It’s no surprise that there are a number of new fire monitoring and prevention technologies on the market today meant to protect your facility and help it pass fire inspections.
Let’s take a look at a few of them:
New and Improved Technologies
Voice Evacuation
While voice evacuation technology has been around for a long time, recently has it become a more standard feature of fire alarm systems and some facilities require it. The International Building Code or Michigan Building Code determines if you are required to install voice evacuation. Typically voice evacuation is only required in schools, high rise buildings (any building over 55ft from the lowest point of entry), or assembly areas with more than 1,000 occupants such as large churches or arenas.
Why is voice evacuation being used in more applications? It is considered to be a better alternative to traditional loud, jarring fire alarms because a voice is less likely to cause people to panic and it can give specific evacuation instructions.
Voice evacuation alerts can inform people of where or what exactly the danger is, so they can avoid it. They can also be used to more accurately deploy law enforcement, fire, or emergency services who have arrived on the scene. In fact, newer systems are frequently being called “mass notification” as they include alarms and voice commands for weather alerts or active shooter scenarios.
More Efficient Notification Devices
Recently, alarm manufacturers have been making great strides to improve notification devices and make them more efficient. One example of this is the new L-Series notification devices from System Sensor.
The new devices draw less current allowing for more devices to be on a single loop. Across all settings, the improved indoor chimes, horns, strobes, chime-strobes and 2-wire horn-strobes have a 20-35 percent reduction in current (or electricity) draw. Using less current helps small to medium business and large commercial building end users reduce costs
All L-Series devices are UL-listed to the revised UL 1638 (public and private mode) and UL 464 signaling standards. Through a variety of customizable volume and tone settings, the devices can be programmed to deliver the high decibel output required by many fire codes.
Mobile Apps
While mobile control of a system is unavailable due to fire alarm code, looking into a system and monitoring it are not. The ability to connect a system to a network and use a mobile app allows for easy viewing of large facilities.
For example, let’s say there is a school district where a fire alarm device going off. If the district facilities manager is notified by someone at the school, he or she can access the system through an app. They can determine location and device in question, why it’s going off and if it is an emergency or a false alarm.
One of the apps that we provide our customers with access to, will keep a running record of the times that a specific fire alarm device sounds. If the device needs service, the app can be used to submit a service ticket directly to us and an EPS technician will be dispatched to fix the malfunctioning device.
To learn more about what EPS can do to help you comply with standards outlined by fire codes, insurance policies and other compliance requirements, click the button below.