A comprehensive fire safety system is essential to ensure personal safety and damage mitigation in cases of fire. An effective fire detection system that offers early and reliable fire detection activates alarm devices and relevant fire safety controls when there is a real fire.
But instances of false alarms due to smoke-like phenomena such as steam, aerosols, and air-bourne dust, can be costly and cause complacency towards a real alarm.
Reducing false alarms
A recent article detailing research undertaken by the Building Research Establishment (BRE) in association with the FIA and manufacturers of fire detection products, has led to finding that multi-sensor detectors can be more effective at reducing false alarms than other categories of detection devices.
Manufacturers from the UK and Europe were involved in the research, representing most of the detectors sold in the UK. Multi-sensor devices were tested against two reference single technology detectors – one commercial, one domestic.
Detector testing
The multi-sensor detectors indicate that the source of the unwanted alarm longer before the alarm is triggered
The detectors underwent various tests including five different false alarm tests: burning toast, cooking, steam, dust, and aerosol spray.
As expected the multi-sensor detectors operated after the reference single technology detectors if at all, indicating that the source of the unwanted alarm needed to be present for longer before the alarm is triggered thereby giving greater opportunity for user intervention or enough time for a transient cause to die away.
Multi-sensor performance
FireClass triple sensor addressable detectors provide the best in class environmental and detection performance with the capability of detecting all fire types.
Multi-sensor detectors monitor more than just one potential output of a fire to help provide accurate detection of real fires. These highly sophisticated detectors can sense levels of heat, smoke, and CO in the air.
Integrating CO, optical smoke, and heat sensors to offer smart, multi-sensing capabilities in one detector can enhance the intelligence of the fire detection system to provide accurate, cost-effective resolution to false alarms.