Part 6 Sheltered housing testing frequency

[Sgt Bilko]

Hi, just trying to establish testing requirements in sheltered housing. I know part 1 system Grade A requires testing weekly and 6 monthly service. Grade D again weekly service annually.
But when it comes to the Part 6 Grade D system within the flats. I am not sure of what the testing frequency is. 
specialised housing says monthly and so does BS5839-6.

But if ARC is installed in the flats then how often should these be tested??

94.16 Where the fire strategy for the building relies on remote transmission of signals from detection within residents' accommodation to an alarm receiving centre (ARC), at the time of the weekly fire alarm test, transmission from the accommodation of at least one resident should be tested to ensure that the signal is received correctly at the ARC. This test should be carried out from the accommodation of a different resident in each successive week, so that, over a period of time, transmission from all residents' accommodation is tested. There is no maximum time over which this should be carried out (i.e. if there are 30 flats in a sheltered housing scheme, it will take 30 weeks for transmission from all flats to be tested).

Does this mean on the weekly communal test that weekly tests on flats with telecare should also be carried out on one of the flats and test a different flat each week until done.

The flats we have are independent flats grade D no telecare then we have flats that part of the main building and have telecare installed. These activate at the ARC centre and notify the manager but not linked to the part 1 communal system.
The way I interpreted this is monthly for the independent flats, then the scheme flats tested with the main alarm system. So if we had 52 flats a different one would be tested each week so over the 52 weeks they all would have been tested over the year.  
I don’t know if I have interpreted this incorrectly, but if not seems strange the independent flats are monthly and potentially the other flats yearly or possibly twice a year if less flats.

 

[AnthonyB]

The way the NFCC guide is written puts the clause in 94.16 firmly in the section regarding the communal BS5839-1 system, which in some sheltered housing blocks does extend into the flats with detection in addition to or instead of a domestic BS5839-6 smoke/heat alarm system.

If that communal system is linked to an Alarm Receiving Centre AND the fire strategy relies on that link for the life safety of occupiers (which it might if for some reason the flat domestic systems are NOT linked individually to telecare/warden/Tunstall systems which is sometimes the case) then I would interpret this as meaning you would then need to weekly test a device in a flat in rotation & see that the ARC is notified (although in most cases the ARC would still only get a simple 'fire' signal from the main address not identifying the flat). If it doesn't then this clause does not apply.

The domestic Grade D system is dealt with in a separate section where the usual requirement of monthly user test applies (which itself would lead to the flat's local telecare link, where fitted, also being tested) with an annual service being required only where a telecare link exists.