Fire alarm for unoccupied buildings

Larna

At the early stages of looking into fire alarms for a large unoccupied building, fire regs are P2.

There will be nothing in the building, it's a construction site but has electricity, just looking for extra peace of mind. Do not live near the building so looking for something I (or a company) can monitor from afar.

What type of monitored systems are available now?

Someone recommended installing Eircom phone watch which comes with a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector, would this be up to P2 regs? (This an area I don't know anything about)

Must keep costs low as possible.

Any advice appreciated.

Hoagy

Larna wrote: »

At the early stages of looking into fire alarms for a
large unoccupied building, fire regs are P2.

The regulations are the Irish Standard IS3218.

P2 refers to the category of system ( Life or Property) and the level of protection (1,2,3,4)

In the current edition of the standard type P has been omitted for clarity , there's only type L now. Coverage was basically the same anyway.

Larna wrote: »

There will be nothing in the building, it's a construction site but has electricity, just looking for extra peace of mind. Do not live near the building so looking for something I (or a company) can monitor from afar.

What type of monitored systems are available now?

Any fire alarm system can have monitoring.

If there is already an intruder alarm then the fire alarm can connect to the same monitoring.

Larna wrote: »

Someone recommended installing Eircom phone watch which comes with a smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector, would this be up to P2 regs?

No.

Do you actually need a full fire alarm system?

Your insurance company may insist on a full system to the standard, but if it's just for your own peace of mind then any intruder alarm system can have smoke detectors added to it, and a camera or two as well which you could view on the web.

Stoner

+1 to the above,

if it is as you say a large building then a proper fire alarm system would be required not a fire alarm on a domestic type intruder alarm cabled in intruder alarm cable.

If as you say its unoccupied and just for your own your own peace of mind then it might be an unofficial option, but if there is occupied space to the side or above it you'd need to look into this more.

Larna

I will have to investigate further - at this point in time I am only concerned about my own peace of mind but further down the road it will be required to be up to the proper spec no doubt so probably no point installing something now that will have to be upgraded later.

There isn't an occupied space either side currently. But that will change down the road.

If anyone can give me an idea of what they paid for a full fire alarm system I'd appreciate it. Just want a rough idea of what I'm facing.. If that's not allowed here in public, feel free to PM.

Appreciate your replies, thanks!

Hoagy

Larna wrote: »

I will have to investigate further - at this point in time I am only concerned about my own peace of mind but further down the road it will be required to be up to the proper spec no doubt so probably no point installing something now that will have to be upgraded later.

There isn't an occupied space either side currently. But that will change down the road.

If anyone can give me an idea of what they paid for a full fire alarm system I'd appreciate it. Just want a rough idea of what I'm facing.. If that's not allowed here in public, feel free to PM.

Appreciate your replies, thanks!

Very roughly:

1 point per 100 sq metres area,
2 points at the top of each staircase,
2 points at each final exit,
1 point outside.

Allow €150-200 per point depending on height.
Add €1000 to cover alarm panel, power point and commissioning.
Say €300 to cover the monitoring device.

Larna

Thanks for this, good to get a rough idea of what price range I'll be looking at.