Security Systems with Smoke Detectors: An Explainer According to the standards, Security Systems with Smoke Detectors (SSWS) are not Fire Alarm Systems, and they should therefore not be subject to fire alarm system compliance requirements, writes Independent Security Consultant Lincoln Potter PSP.
This year the NZSA has received numerous enquiries about the Building Code and Security Systems with Smoke Detection (SSWS). Clarification has been sought as to the confusion and possible misunderstanding from building inspectors, Councils, builders and security technicians and integrators.
Lincoln Potter PSP is an Aucklandbased independent security consultant. He is the winner of the 2016 New Zealand Security Consultant of the Year Award and a 2018 ASIS International Meritorious Service Award.
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It is apparent that there exist differing interpretations surrounding the standards documents and what the Building Code states in relation to SSWS, with some of technicians reporting that interpretations are varying from Council to Council, territory to territory. What the documents say about SSWS Firstly, an SSWS is an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) with a smoke detector(s) attached (edge device). It is not, by definition, a Fire Alarm. Its primary purpose is to detect intruders, with smoke detection just a function of such a system. Because it is an Intrusion Detection system, it is covered by the Standard AS/NZS 22021.1: 2007 Intruder Alarm Systems. By contrast, the Standard NZS 4512:2021 Fire detection and alarm systems in buildings (updated earlier this year) has no place for SSWS. In the list of types of fire safety systems listed in NZS 4512:2021 (at Appendix B), the only type that SSWS appears to fit is Type 1 – Domestic smoke alarm system:
‘A Type 1 system involves combined smoke detector and audible alerting device(s), either hard-wired or battery powered, and which are provided with a ‘hush’ facility that allows an occupant to silence the alarm for a short period. Unless a single station smoke alarm is sufficient to cover the entire household unit or suite, smoke alarms are required to be interconnected such that when smoke is detected at one device the alerting is activated at all devices. Visual or tactile alerting (or both) is permitted to be added to the system provided the audible alerting functions are not compromised’. The Standard goes on to state that it does not in fact cover Type 1 systems, and it refers the reader to NZS 4514:2021 Interconnected smoke alarms for houses. The Standard also states at section ‘1.1.4 Alternative technologies’ [with my underlines]: ‘This standard specifies performance and test requirements for electrical and electronic fire alarms systems. Alternative technologies that do not comply with the specific requirements but give equivalent performance are not necessarily prohibited. In such cases, appraisal testing and certification will need to demonstrate this equivalent performance’. And at section ‘2.3.1 Ancillary services’ [with my underlines]: ‘The fire alarm system shall not rely upon the use of equipment shared with other building services ( for example, intruder alarm systems, fibre optic modems, internet protocol (IP) routers, IP switches, or information technolog y (IT) servers) in the performance of any mandatory function’.
October/November 2021
