Alarm For Commercial Building

[rossc]

Hello,

 i am hoping i can get some guidance. I am moving my business to a new site, It is very very simple.  Warehouse style site, 2900sq ft, simple rectangle. with door at front, door at back. Also a small kitchen and toilet.  You are never far from either front door or rear door, unless in the toilet you can always see an exit.  The business is a mobility shop, wheelchairs, scooters, walking aids etc. Normally, we have 2 members of staff and a few customers through the day. More than 6 people in th building is rare. We do nothing special there, so I don't see us accidently starting fires.

 

I want to do this right, clearly I will do risk assessments, get signs fire extinguishers etc.  The current occupant of the new building says that it does not need a Fire Alarm as it's easy to warn people of fire and you can always see an exit. Infact you're never more than a few seconds walk the door. (it's all on ground floor). 

 

I don't feel comfortable having no alarms. The buglar alarm system I am installing also does Fire.  i am thinking of getting 5 smoke / CO2 detectors along with 3 buttons that will sound a siren inside and out.  It is a SimpliSafe system.

Here is my question !! 

 

I don't think I technically must have an alarm, but if I choose Simplisafe which is basically a wireless homesystem, then will I cause myself a problem? I am thinking that maybe they should be hard wired red cables etc.  I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by causing a situation where if i did nothing, then I would be complying but if i put in a system that is non compliant then I have made a mistake, even though something is better than nothing.  Clearly I will test it weekly etc.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Ross

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[green-foam]

As you say,  simplisafe is a domestic intruder alarm, it should never be considered to be or referred as a fire alarm. Incidentally CO2 is carbon dioxide, it is what makes fizzy drinks sparkle. I believe you are thinking of Carbon monoxide which is CO. The two are very different.

[AnthonyB]

Due to the small size of the premises you can follow the guidance at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-your-small-non-domestic-premises-safe-from-fire

The fire alarm info is below - if you need a fire alarm for legal compliance it should be a BS5839-1 commercial system. If you don't other than for say an access room situation or non life safety property protection then Grade D or higher domestic equipment would be permitted.
The Simplisafe website states their smoke detectors aren't interlinked so wouldn't sound throughout the premises nor have manual call points - for the same money you might as well have a proper wireless interlinked BS5839-6 system with call points such as the Aico brand sold here: https://www.safelincs.co.uk/smoke-alarms/

Means of giving warning in the event of a fire

In single storey premises with open plan layouts and small numbers of people, the alarm may be raised by shouting “fire”. Alternatively, the alarm could be raised manually, using a hand-operated bell or siren.

In premises of more than one storey, where the above method of giving warning would be unreliable, an electrical fire alarm system may be necessary. These systems should have ‘break glass’ call points and fire alarm sounders, connected to a control panel.

In premises of more than one storey, where a fire might start and be undetected in its early stages, the fire alarm system may need to incorporate automatic fire detectors (these will generally be smoke detectors or, in the case of kitchens or other rooms in which smoke detectors would cause false alarms, heat detectors).

In premises that do not have, and do not generally need, an electrical fire alarm system, but have inner rooms without adequate vision to the associated access room, interlinked, mains-powered domestic smoke alarms might be used to provide an early warning of a fire to people in an inner room.

[rossc]

AnthonyB - Thanks very much this is really really helpful. 

 

Having read the regs a couple of times and briefly discussed with my local fire station, I am sure that the space meets the small non domestic regs/link you provided.

Based on what you have said and what the document says, my legal requirement is "no alarm needed and shouting is fine"

Therefore given that I am not "required" to have an alarm, then I can opt for Grade D or higher domestic equipment would be permitted should I so wish.

............

Now for the Simplisafe part.

Although the smoke alarms from simlisafe are not inteconnected, they do connect back to the base station and sirens. So if any of them activated then the siren in the buiding would sound as would the external one.  Furthermore it would alert their monitoring people.

Simplisafe don't have break glass points, but they do have panic buttons that can be configured to activate the sirens and alert the monitoring station.  My thought was to mount them on several walls with signage. they are cheap.

...........

The more I think about it, the more I think that I should go for a specific fire system.  But it would be much much easier to have the simplisafe because it will sound a siren, alert the monitoring people and alert me and i wouldnt have two systems to look after.

 

any final thoughts/advice?

 

I really appreciate the help AnthonyB

 

Ross

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AnthonyB]

If it's over and above legally required life safety requirements and you are aware of any limitations of the system but are still happy for the additional cover then that shouldn't be a problem