Alertacall - Moving on from hard-wired alarm and warden call systems

Smoke alarms Some hard-wired alarm and warden call systems in individual dwellings have a smoke alarm connected by way of a cable up to the ceiling and even after the removal of those hard-wired alarm and warden call systems, those smoke alarms will need to continue to act as audible smoke alarms in accordance with fire safety guidelines. It is frequently determined by decision makers using the fire safety guidelines that smoke alarms in individual dwellings do not need to be “monitored” for activations and escalations to the fire service, although some housing providers choose to do so as part of their own internal policies. If monitored smoke alarms are preferred Where monitoring of smoke alarms is preferred by the housing provider, this will mean that the smoke alarm needs to be wired or connected to a device that can trigger a call to a monitoring centre outside the building. Where the hard-wired alarm and warden call system has been removed this can be achieved in one of three ways: 1. Where a high quality door entry system has been installed, the smoke alarm can be connected via the door entry handset, or videophone in the property, which provides a conduit out of the building to a monitoring centre. 2. The smoke alarm can be wired as an additional sensor on the landlord system which is already present in the building and protecting communal areas. 3. The smoke alarm can be replaced by a wireless 2g/3g/4g smoke alarm which communicates with a monitoring centre using the mobile network. Reducing false alarms It is important to note that where monitoring is required, the housing provider and its monitoring centre has a responsibility to reduce false alarms before events are escalated to the fire service. This can be achieved after the removal of hard-wired alarm and warden call systems by using one of the following approaches: 1. Install in each dwelling a modern multi-sensor smoke alarm head with built-in technology that automatically and effectively reduces the number of false alarms. This means that costs associated with dealing with false alarms activations are significantly reduced, and so are escalations to the fire service. 2. If there is an activation of a smoke alarm a monitoring centre can make a telephone call to the resident to determine whether the activation was real or not. This is replicating the traditional approach where a monitoring centre would call a resident over the hard-wired alarm and warden call system. It should be noted that this approach is not always very effective at reducing false alarms because residents are often non-responsive, confused by the noise of the smoke alarm or otherwise unable to determine whether there really is a smoke or fire problem. www.alertacall.com 9