Fire alarm in assisted living

[Steve0030]

can someone advise what fire alarm would be suitable for an assisted living dwelling whether it be a conventional or addressable. Any help appreciated thanks

 

[tazz]

Hi steve, welcome to the forum....How large is the dwelling, single or multiple beds..?

 

[Harni]

When you say assisted living, is it a proper care home? Or independent living for elderly? Disabled?
Need a LOT of information really. Have you been given a spec to go off of or are you designing this system your self?

 

[Steve0030]

Hi it's a building with 16 self contained apartments but the apartments are more like bedsits all open plan 1 room. The building also has a communal kitchen and lounge area. There will be a manager on hand at all times but not really care staff. It used to be a nursing home with 32 beds in and had a 6 zone panel installed but I've taken that out now so need to design and install new system but unsure as to whether I'd need addressable or just zones. The building is laid out into 3 wings 2 floors each wing thanks

 

[tazz]

Under new ruling, you will need to fit an addressable system, this will be zoned to. Depending on bedsits having their own kitchens will also be an issue on detection. Also look into what will require shutdown or function. Such as corridor fire doors closing, door access control opening and possible gas shutdown. A risk assessment should have already been done to assist. For nurse call monitoring, suggest Intercall to monitor bedsit & toilet.

 

[Harni]

As Tazz says, any care home with more than 10 permanent residents now requires a addressable system under the 2013 BS5839 update.
That update was virtually entirely based on a big fire you may remember on the news at the Rosepark care home a few years ago. I really would recommend brushing up on that update before you start your design.
I don't wish to scaremonger but you need to get this design right and need to know what you're doing. Ideally you would just be installing to someone else's design. To give you an idea, i have been involved with a fire on a site i look after over the past few months. That was a care home with what i can only describe as a awful fire alarm which didn't work as desired. Short story, several residents died and the fire officer is taking this very seriously including taking the original installers/designers and the care home staff to court for not taking note of our recommendations to bring the system up to a basic standard.
If you are going ahead with this design, get your self a copy of Notifers little black book at the bottom of this page

Notifier Fire Systems

Can be posted or downloaded as a PDF and is a fantastic guide to siting kit.

 

[Steve0030]

Thanks for your replies very helpful and exactly what I was worried about designing the system and being wrong or something were to happen. Any suggestion as to who would design a system like this so I can just do the install to their design? Thanks again

 

[tazz]

Steve have sent you a PM