Eaton’s Fire Systems Helps Protect Prestigious London Student Development
Power management company Eaton announced that it was selected by ABCA Systems, a specialist electrical systems installer, to deliver a fire alarm system for one of London’s newest multiple-use facilities, Spring Mews in Vauxhall. Completed in September 2014 and developed by CLS Holdings plc, a FTSE 250 commercial property investment company, the project includes luxurious lodging for more than 400 students.
The students have access to excellent social, leisure and academic facilities on site, such as a cinema, gym and swimming pool, laundry facilities, study/games areas and secure bicycle storage. The development also includes a contemporary 93-bed suite hotel and various retail spaces.
To provide for the safety of students, guests and visitors, as well as the premises itself, CLS Holdings tasked ABCA Systems with providing a top quality fire alarm and disabled refuge system throughout the new facilities. With more than 30 years’ experience in the market, ABCA Systems specifically chose to fit the new facilities with high specification solutions from Eaton for comprehensive protection.
Philip Miller, Managing Director of ABCA Systems said: “We’ve worked with Eaton on a number of projects in the past and the support we receive, as well as the solutions offered, are second to none. So when it came to making the decision about which provider of fire systems to use for this new facility, the decision was a very easy one to make.”
In order to support operational continuity, the Spring Mews project required a bespoke fire alarm solution with a sophisticated range of cause-and-effect programming to meet the differing detection and alarm requirements for each of its facilities, including permanent or temporary accommodation, retail units and business premises.
ABCA Systems chose to install 14 of Eaton’s CF3000 - a high specification intelligent addressable control panel – throughout the new facilities as an ideal solution to the number of demands put on it by the diversity of the multiple-use premises.
“We recommended these specific addressable control panels to ABCA Systems due to their sophisticated functionality with simple operation,” added Mike Slater, Sales Account Manager at Eaton. “Additionally, their aesthetically pleasing design fits in perfectly within the new luxury facilities.”
The advantage of an addressable panel, compared with a conventional panel, is that it pinpoints the particular alarm that has been activated, which speeds up the process of detecting the source of a suspected fire.
The ability to pinpoint the location of a fire alert is a significant benefit within student accommodation where there can be a high number of individual rooms. It helps fire service personnel deal with the situation more quickly and therefore limits the risk to occupants and the building itself.
The CF3000 panels use soft addressing to decrease installation time as well as the potential for error associated with manual addressing, both of which limit costs for the owner of the building. It can operate as a standalone panel or as part of a networked system, offering flexibility and the potential for system expansion to meet the requirements of a developing business. They also feature powerful programming options that allow configurable control over whether messages from specific panels are transmitted around the network or remain local, to avoid unnecessary disruption to other building occupants.
It’s possible, for example, to program the sounder operation to prevent unnecessary evacuation of all building occupants.
Reduction of false alarms is a priority across the UK. A report by BRE (Buildings Research Establishment) stated that 53.4% of the 584,500 fire alerts raised in the period 2011-2012 were not fires and were therefore considered to be false alarms. [i]
In addition to disruption and potentially dangerous diversion of resources, the financial burden of these incidents is considerable. According to the Fire Industry Association, the cost of false fire alarms is in excess of £1bn per year. [ii]
With large numbers of young residents occupying multiple rooms in a single building, student accommodation is particularly vulnerable to false alarms. Higher education institutions will be aware that a number of fire authorities in the UK are beginning to impose charges for attending a particular site after a specified number of call-outs has been exceeded within the space of a year. What’s more, insurance premiums can also be affected.
In addition to educating students about the common causes of false alarms, technology also offers a solution. Many of the more advanced control panels incorporate time delays for example, which allow for internal investigation of a fire alarm before sounders are activated. Another feature is ‘double knock’ of ‘coincidence sensing’ technology, whereby the control panel searches for activation of any other fire detection devices in the same area to determine whether the alarm is valid or erroneous.
In addition to the panels, an array of fire ancillaries were also installed, including a ‘bell tone’ electronic sounder that was developed specifically for the Spring Mews project.
“The installation process was fast paced and no challenges were encountered during it,” added Philip Miller. “Although we had a few difficulties due to putting a two year programme into one, the panels worked well throughout and Eaton was there every step of the way to ensure everything ran smoothly.”
David Towse, Project Manager at CLS Holdings concludes “The prestigious Spring Mews student accommodation facility has been in full use for a few months now, and Eaton’s addressable control panels have absolutely met the demands of the site. Health and safety is our main priority, and with an Eaton fire system in place we can rest assured that our students, guests and visitors are well taken care of.”
For more details on fire systems from Eaton visit, e-mail www.cooperfire.com