As part of the BRE’s Innovation Park showcasing sustainable design and construction, a section of a full scale, 3-storey school has been fitted with the latest in networked fire detection and alarm equipment.
The construction – part of a project to showcase smarter, more sustainable buildings while achieving the highest standards in construction – has involved the fitting of a Controlmaster 1000 fire detection panel from Chubb Fire, along with smoke detectors, call points, sounders and beacons to meet L1 criteria.
The system has IP functionality which means that engineers can remotely monitor and diagnose the system, as well as ‘pre-commission’ it prior to a site visit. In addition, using existing IT infrastructure, users can monitor the state of their system from any PC or laptop, while building managers can monitor multiple sites remotely.
Controlmaster 1000 can also network several panels together to create a bigger system. This ‘multi-panel connectivity’ will allow the state of each panel to be monitored, potentially giving end-users not just a view of current system ‘health’, but also management information on the system’s performance.
The system also has the potential to integrate with associated technologies, such as CCTV. With cameras on site linked to a fire graphics package, monitoring staff can literally ‘see’ an incident as it is triggered, helping them deliver an appropriate response.
“Of course the whole raison d’etre behind the development of future fire detection technology for schools is ultimately to provide better levels of protection,” said Graham Faulkner, Chubb Fire’s product and technical manager. “But it is also about providing better levels of false alarm management and reduction. Panels can link with all manner of detectors, but Controlmaster 1000 will be able to analyse a combination of factors to determine whether an alarm can be confirmed as genuine.”
Chubb Fire estimates that such technology represents a potential 22% saving on the time an engineer spends on site commissioning a system.
The model school was opened in June and will remain on the BRE site for the next two years, during which it will be used as a showcase for demonstrations to schools, LEAs and relevant government departments.
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