Great video as far as the wire it looks almost comparable to Pyro which is found in many buildings from the 50s to 80s and is still used in fire critical equipment. The proper name is mineral insulated but is often known as pyrotenax. There is powder insulation separating bare conductors inside and has a copper sheathing. It was used for years for fire alarm however is not as common anymore as it is difficult to work with it is still used for things like smoke control systems where the power to may pass through multiple fire compartments and must still be intact and serviceable even if the room it's going through is on fire. Because it uses powder instead of a plastic/rubber insulation it will keep its integrity until the copper melts down which obviously takes a lot of heat.
I am from the UK and install fire alarms and other fire equipment, I agree we do seem to not have sprinklers as much as the USA, We tend to have 4 levels of fire alarm installation called L1, L2, L3, L4 there are others but these are the main ones and they are for life safety, We don't tend to fit strobes unless the sound level off the fire alarm is not more then 5db then the ambient noise for that area, strobes are fitted in toilets. We do love a sign in a building and it is a regulation for us to fit them next to call points (pull stations) Also regulations for emergency lighting and they should be maintained on the final door to outside and one on the outside to light a safe route once outside. The bulk heads with the signage on are exit signs only not classed as emergency lights as such. We do a lot for what we call fire compartmentation to stop or slow the spread of fire like self closing fire doors, My pet hate is walking in to a building and find a fire extinguisher hold a door open.🙄
@@mjgriff74it depends. From my knowledge it is code 3, but it can vary. Also, in buildings with children/injured people etc. there can sometimes be two different tones eg. In a hospital and on the same ward as the fire, it will be continuous to let you know it is very dangerous, but for the rest of the building it may be pulse/code3.
@@mjgriff74 As long as the tone is one of the british standard sounds, it's up to the installer / commisioning engineer to set them. All sounders in the building should be on the same tone to comply.. also pulsing tones like code three are not regarded as an evacuation tone as its more an alert, or even used for class change tones on the fire systems in schools, however continuous tones or bells would be fire
2:57 just a small note, heat detectors and multi-sensor detectors can also be fitted within the device (base sounder) a great example are Apollo XP95 or Hochiki.
The main reason for that is the brits have the longest experience in ship building and ships all together. So it’s the British who have the overall say in Maritime laws. So a lot of what you see in a ship even US ships will be British safety systems or will use British safety systems as its a standard. However I believe vessels like private yachts etc… can use which ever
the uk and Europe have had iso and signs directive fire exit signs around for years. neon green has also indicated safety for years in Europe and the uk, but chances are still high of getting lost in a Smokey room. there is a solution but its not in the uk yet, its very complicated to explain but very basically its fire exit signs but at ground level, so if you were in a smoky room you can still crawl towards the nearest exit or escape route following the small fire exit signs.
I've never been to the United Kingdom before, but I do know that they have different words for a few things. An Elevator in the UK is called a Lift. I believe when you have to go to the Bathroom, you ask if you can go to the Toilet. Train Stations in the UK have an "Inspector Sands" Message that sounds before the actual Voice Evacuation Message. And what we call Railroad Crossings in the US, the UK calls Level Crossings.
I've always hated fire alarms, but as someone in the UK can say that the alarms here tend to be better than the ones in the US. I've never heard one of those typical American Code 3 alarms with a screeching tone in Britain, and many of the detector integrated sounders which are standard in newer buildings here aren't too loud, I think because buildings with them tend to have one in every room which means they don't need to be as loud. Most of the ceiling integrated ones in the UK (which includes pretty much all detector/sounder integrated systems) make a constant two tone noise in my experience. The red on white EXIT signs that are standard in most of the US are a bit weird to me, becuase most countries now use some variant of the white on green "running man" sign. The UK has used variants of the running man signs since the second half of the 1990s, and its most recent revision which you see in buildings built or refurbished in recent years is virtually identical to the newer signage in Canada (many of the running man signs in your video are various older ones).
In high rise buildings, and hotel rooms there are usually map layouts of the floors on each level, and all residential rooms showing the fire routes to the nearest emergency exit, and a lot of signage within or around stairwells and corridors would be placed lower on walls near the floor in case they are smoke filled and so can be seen when crawling on the ground too.
Great video. Fire blankets appeared at London Underground stations during pandemic, when alcohol gel hand sanitising stations were installed at every station. Could be coincidental, but my guess is that they were connected to a risk assessment relating to alcohol hand gel. In the UK, there is a large variety of sounds that notification devices make (bells, warbling tones, sweeping tones, continuous tones, sirens, voice alarms etc.) - there doesn't seem to be a standard signal like the US temporal 3. The tone that the fire alarm makes seems to be dependent on the age of the system and the manufacturer.
I'm from the UK and in my experience the older fire alarms from the 90s and before are loud and scary sounding. They'll defiantly get your attention. Banshee and Roshni sounders are the loudest which are still widely used but older and rarer ones like the Strident, Minimite and Super M sirens are probably the loudest ones ever used in the UK.
The UK is very similar to NZ, meaning that you will find very similar devices. However, their smoke detectors are a bit different, and the call points. We use running man exits and the typical "exit" lettering exit signs. Here's some interesting information about UK extinguishers: Back in the 70s, there were 5 colors: Blue meant powder, black meant CO², white meant foam, red meant water and green meant halon/bcf. They changed the color to having red with a colored band after that. They used to use (and probably still do use) the cartridge opertated model every now and then. Chubb was a big company, and still is. They make products and inspections. However, the UK Chubb extinguisher is different to the Australian one that we use. Apart from that, they are very similar to us in devices. Very nice video!
Hi mate firstley great video. Im in the uk you will see on my channel emergency lights, The red wiring to fire alarms is usualy when alarms are added through out the buildings life sometimes they where just installed like that. I also think the green man exit signs are better and should be in all contrys for diffrent languqe reasons, I hope you liked the uk FIRE SAFETY SYSTEMS!
The annoying thing about UK fire alarms to the US is we don't have a set tone like Code 3. I've been in buildings where a fire alarm has sounded but not been instantly recognisable as a fire alarm - it sounded like a car alarm outside the building. My workplace has a range of sounders set to different tones. It's quite a disorientating sound. Strangely - my smoke alarms at home sound in Code 3! Many high rise residential buildings have no centralised fire alarm system too. It's a requirement in hotels and houses of multiple occupancy but not high rise apartment blocks. I'm very glad we didn't get horns installed in schools over here. We had fire bells and they brought enough nightmares.
The US doesn’t either. Code 3 is the standard but not required, and as far as I’m aware it’s the same in the Uk I believe your Hi-lo tone is what is mostly the standard, many of your systems mostly the ones by Honeywell come with it as default.
@ryanhelton1865 yes we do…temporal coding the required standard in 90 percent of cases. Some systems use whoops, but the standardized evacuation signal that is required in most cases is code 3
@@ryanhelton1865 The problem is that Honeywell hi-lo tone is often used for "cautionary" alarms in the UK, such as railway crossings and opening and closing automatic gates. Some places use a upwards sawtooth tone instead to differentiate it from other alarms.
Hey, in terms of sprinklers in the U.S. it varies state to state. For example, when I lived in Utah indeed almost every building was protected by sprinklers, however here in Hawaii it is quite the opposite barely any of the buildings I have been to have sprinklers.
I'd imagine the extinguishers would be intended for staff that have received training for that particular workplace, although anyone who is trained can use them
fire extinguishers are meant to be used by anyone. if they were only meant to be used by staff, I'm sure they will be in a staff area with plenty of signage
There are a couple of other areas which I think are worth a mention as well. One thing which we do in the UK is we have sounders and beacons that are wired to the addressable loop. This means that a separate sounder circuit (or NAC as you would call it) is not required and is still has the capability of tone and flash synchronisation and also means that that sounder and beacon can be directly fault-monitored; this is also why we use base sounders a lot of the time. Conventional sounders can still be found on many conventional systems and older addressable system as well though. Another thing is our implementation of voice alarm. I've noticed in the US that the voice alarm speakers are directly part of the fire alarm and are therefore not very versatile. In the UK, we use separate voice alarm systems that are interfaced with the fire alarm but are effectively separate systems. This means that they are more versatile and can be used for other purposes such as lockdown/security alerts, general announcements and music. They use normal looking paging speakers but they all use ceramic terminal blocks, wired in fireproof cable, the speaker lines are monitored for faults and some system will also have backup amplifiers that are use if the main amplifier fails. In terms of what you mentioned about beacons, there used to be no standard for how bright beacons should be so each manufacturer would just make to a design they thought was best; that meant there was a lot of variation in brightness and coverage. Now with EN54-23, they have categorised beacons into VADs (Visual Alarm Device) and VIDs (Visual Indicating Device). VADs have standardised light output which means the brightness is consistent across the area they cover and a lot of companies now choose to do them in white (I personally prefer red as it is more obvious that it means fire). VIDs are effectively beacons before EN54-23 came in; they can still be used if VADs are not required by the risk assessment and many companies still make them for this purpose as they are cheaper and do not have the strict requirements of where they can be mounted. Many companies no longer make VIDs though. I completely agree with what you said about sprinklers. Not enough buildings have them and it is surprising the standards haven't been updated, especially since the Grenfell Tower fire. The new Student Centre at my university has no sprinklers despite it opening in 2021. Hopefully the standards will update soon
Interesting comments. I like that your systems have loop powered sounders. Very innovative. Our speakers are also usable as everything you mentioned: we have them interfaces with paging speaker or sometimes even use them as general paging devices.
@@FireAlarmDude5967 Ah right okay, didn't realise your voice alarm systems were capable of that too. I've never been to the US but the ones I've seen online always seem to just be for the fire alarm and that's it
Im from the UK, and from what ive seen, it seems there may not be a requirement for older buildings to have sprinklers installed (As to how much of this is down to making it easier for “Listed Buildings” to comply, im not sure, Listed buildings are essentially protected from modifications, and you cannot legally make changes without getting special permission (with some exceptions), im not sure how fire alarms work with listed buildings, if they are supposed to install wireless systems wherever possible or what (Wireless systems DO exist, i have seen such a system)) Ive only ever seen an integrated “light ring” on a smoke detector go off, and the one i saw did not strobe, but was more like a simulated spinning light, so unfortunately I can’t really comment on what the standalone strobes are like
Hey dude, alot of our fire sprinkers are concealed within the drop celing and the little cap pops out when they are activated. I find alot of our fire safety laws are relaxed although still very safe.
Thanks for your comment. Concealed fire sprinkler heads are very common in the United States as well. I didn’t see very many sprinkler systems in the UK, including systems with those heads.
This is the most basic kind of requirement many buildings go away above this. We have much of a system where it’s assessing the fire risk compared to in America. I believe it’s blanket rules it’s very dependent on the situation. The United States require sprinkler so you can get out the building because they usually would a brick building is going to be stand fire probably for enough time
hey British person here. We do have sprinklers in every building as its a requirement but we have lowered ceilings as most of the US does but we have caps over out sprinkler heads. It still works the same as if they weren't there but it helps prevent damage to the sprinkler heads. If there were to be a fire then the heat would cause the heads to expand causing them to pop out and then the fire reaches the sprinkler heads and activates them. I've actually seen this in action before myself as there was a fire in a shopping centre known as ASDA and as we were being evacuated I was recording and got it on video of how it all worked. And in the event we don't have a sprinkler system in a room we have fire ducts. There are 2 separate fire alarm systems one is made for evacuation and the other is for fire ducts. If there were to be smoke or heat detected it would active the fire duct panel (a different panel to the evacuation panel but usually the same make and model) and then the fire vents would open and all windows would open in the building. The fire duct panel does not cause a evacuation although there are 2 identical smoke and or heat detectors right next to each other (identical) so one is for fire evacuation and the other is for smoke duct. We also have a orange call point usually the same make and model as the fire alarm call points but they are wired to the smoke duct system and are ladled emergency vent open. when pressed all windows open but leaving the fire ducts closed. only a manual push on the control panel would open the fire ducts but a key and or code is required , other than that only smoke and or heat can cause the fire ducts to open. Hope this was some nice information! Let me know if you want to know anything else!
Just now I looked into the regulations regarding sprinklers in the UK From what I can tell, it seems sprinklers are only required in commercial buildings that have large open areas, or newer blocks of flats As I suspected, it seems existing/older buildings are not required to be fitted with sprinklers That explains why the new building of the school I went to in 2012 had sprinklers (as there were two rooms which likely required sprinklers, plus the hallways, which were large open areas, and the design of the building was just asking for a fire on one floor to make its way to the other floor, you could look down from the upper floor down onto the ground floor hallway, and there were no fire barriers of any sort fitted, at least none I could see, there were even a few false activations of the fire alarm, and nothing happened that would have prevented fire from getting between floors, that building did have an odd quirk which suggested it was designed with an extension in mind, there was talk about the building possibly being extended, and the classroom numbers were even laid out to accommodate an extension without the numbers getting weird, during the time I was there, construction of the extension never started, and I don’t know if it ever went ahead)
The UK is great when it comes to signage. However, it definitely lacks behind the USA in almost every other area when it comes to fire safety. The UK even adopts a lot of NFPA guidance. I have managed fire safety for both UK and US clients so I am familiar with both codes (though most of the UK’s fire regulations are non-prescriptive). Fire inspections in the UK are lax and carried out by privately hired inspectors rather than state fire marshals (which don’t exist in the UK - in the UK a fire marshal is just a low ranked watchman). As you mentioned sprinkler systems are also lacking and the regulations are quite far behind. The UK hasn’t adopted low-level exit signage which is growing fast in the US. Many buildings have very limited egress routes (Grenfell had just one staircase and no alternative exit). Final exit doors often open inwards due to council regulations that prohibit doors from opening outwards onto a public highway, whereas in the USA every exterior commercial door opens onto the street. There’s no standardized alarm tone (like T-3) so alarms are often confusing or ignored, which is coupled with a very lax safety culture. There’s no requirement for strobes so visual notifications are rarely present. LSZH (low smoke zero halogen) cables are also practically non-existent. Just a few things that immediately come to mind. The UK tends to look good but behind the appearance there's a lot of problems and no real attitude for change.
Ill be honest, fire alarm systems in the UK are more advanced, all thats good about our pull stations is that some have ADA compliant pull stations that can't be pulled accidentally like the simplex T bar or BG-12.
@@FireAlarmDude5967as someone who has been over to the Uk and seen how their systems worked UK fire alarms are way more advanced than what we have in the states. Take Honeywell pride company GENT By Honeywell it is the most advanced fire detection system in the market and sadly isn’t available in the US. Also look at the world trade centre they use British fire detection devices because the detection devices we have on the dates are not as advanced as the ones in the Uk. Sadly we are behind. But I’d recommend checking out some GENT by Honeywell system on TH-cam I had a little look amazing systems just a shame Honeywell never made them available in the US they would have made a killing.
I think In newer buildings they do have sprinklers fitted in their by law but older buildings you don’t need to some reason I don’t know why but I am from the uk
Why the breakable glass callpoints? You might cut your finger badly activating one. I understand the reason to do it and save your’s and other’s lives but still, shocking that there are no regular pull stations.
The glass has a film over it, so when you break it, it will "snap" rather than shatter - sort of like a shatterproof ruler. It's more common to find resettable ones nowadays anyway :)
They are not alot of sprinklers in the uk all 20% did in all of the buildings i went in I live in the uk actually and my favourite fire alarm company is gent
The only problem with the UK call points is that the glass breaks and needs physically replaced, this isn't cost effective... especially when they are deliberatly vandalised or abused, especially in school when there was an afternoon where they would be set off all the time... we had to walk out and back in school most of the afternoon that day lol. Soon as you sat down, mins later another one. 😅 at least some have accident prevention, protective flaps over them now
Not anymore, majority of call points from 2006 onwards are now resettable. You can now also purchase plastic elements for older call points like the ones in the photo so they are too resettable.
I live in uk Are strobes are red some are white but it not as common and not really legal are red strobes are for people to see Whare sound is coming from and to interact that’s it’s a fire alarm it also help’s people who are deaf most newer public buildings have sprinklers especially restaurants and coffee shop however some old buildings don’t such as church’s and it’s very rare you would have them in homes how ever in Scotland ionisation smoke alarms and smoke detectors are banned from being sold in shops and landlords must have smoke alarm they are wirelessly connected something that in time will definitely be found in howl of uk law are alerms also sound completely different to the ones in the USA and we have many different tones on on different brands of alerm the most common tho is roshi and the Apollo both on default sound tho some new alerms sound alerm for about 30 seconds gives a message telling you to basically leave and continues on a loop.
Mind, I have seen a klaxon sonos sounder with a small, led, white strobe. MC fire and security got one if you want to check it out. You might have to dig through 😂😂😂
Great video as far as the wire it looks almost comparable to Pyro which is found in many buildings from the 50s to 80s and is still used in fire critical equipment. The proper name is mineral insulated but is often known as pyrotenax. There is powder insulation separating bare conductors inside and has a copper sheathing. It was used for years for fire alarm however is not as common anymore as it is difficult to work with it is still used for things like smoke control systems where the power to may pass through multiple fire compartments and must still be intact and serviceable even if the room it's going through is on fire. Because it uses powder instead of a plastic/rubber insulation it will keep its integrity until the copper melts down which obviously takes a lot of heat.
please please pleaase review austrilan fire alarms i recon it is the best out of all of them
also we all use these things in austrila but just beter
I am from the UK and install fire alarms and other fire equipment, I agree we do seem to not have sprinklers as much as the USA, We tend to have 4 levels of fire alarm installation called L1, L2, L3, L4 there are others but these are the main ones and they are for life safety, We don't tend to fit strobes unless the sound level off the fire alarm is not more then 5db then the ambient noise for that area, strobes are fitted in toilets. We do love a sign in a building and it is a regulation for us to fit them next to call points (pull stations) Also regulations for emergency lighting and they should be maintained on the final door to outside and one on the outside to light a safe route once outside. The bulk heads with the signage on are exit signs only not classed as emergency lights as such. We do a lot for what we call fire compartmentation to stop or slow the spread of fire like self closing fire doors, My pet hate is walking in to a building and find a fire extinguisher hold a door open.🙄
Hey - great info. Who decides what tones are used when fitting a system? Is there a standard like Code 3
@@mjgriff74it depends. From my knowledge it is code 3, but it can vary. Also, in buildings with children/injured people etc. there can sometimes be two different tones eg. In a hospital and on the same ward as the fire, it will be continuous to let you know it is very dangerous, but for the rest of the building it may be pulse/code3.
@@mjgriff74 As long as the tone is one of the british standard sounds, it's up to the installer / commisioning engineer to set them. All sounders in the building should be on the same tone to comply..
also pulsing tones like code three are not regarded as an evacuation tone as its more an alert, or even used for class change tones on the fire systems in schools, however continuous tones or bells would be fire
2:57 just a small note, heat detectors and multi-sensor detectors can also be fitted within the device (base sounder) a great example are Apollo XP95 or Hochiki.
If you work on commercial ships, you can discover that the fire safty measures on the ship is similar to that in UK
The main reason for that is the brits have the longest experience in ship building and ships all together. So it’s the British who have the overall say in Maritime laws. So a lot of what you see in a ship even US ships will be British safety systems or will use British safety systems as its a standard.
However I believe vessels like private yachts etc… can use which ever
Running man exit signs are great, unless it's a smokey room, then it's nearly impossible to tell it's an exit sign
the uk and Europe have had iso and signs directive fire exit signs around for years. neon green has also indicated safety for years in Europe and the uk, but chances are still high of getting lost in a Smokey room. there is a solution but its not in the uk yet, its very complicated to explain but very basically its fire exit signs but at ground level, so if you were in a smoky room you can still crawl towards the nearest exit or escape route following the small fire exit signs.
@@urlocalcrazyhuman here in america sometimes i see exit signs at ground level in hotels, its rare though
I should say that your EXIT signs will probably be quite hard to see in a Smokey room too, they will just look like a jumble of red/green light.
Some exit signs in the uk have a light in them
I've never been to the United Kingdom before, but I do know that they have different words for a few things.
An Elevator in the UK is called a Lift.
I believe when you have to go to the Bathroom, you ask if you can go to the Toilet.
Train Stations in the UK have an "Inspector Sands" Message that sounds before the actual Voice Evacuation Message.
And what we call Railroad Crossings in the US, the UK calls Level Crossings.
you don't need to ask to go to the bathroom in the uk, unless you in school or something lmao
Love hearing "will inspector sands please report to..." 😊
@@mjgriff74 if you hear that you should evacuate immediately using the nearest exit/fire exit
I've always hated fire alarms, but as someone in the UK can say that the alarms here tend to be better than the ones in the US. I've never heard one of those typical American Code 3 alarms with a screeching tone in Britain, and many of the detector integrated sounders which are standard in newer buildings here aren't too loud, I think because buildings with them tend to have one in every room which means they don't need to be as loud. Most of the ceiling integrated ones in the UK (which includes pretty much all detector/sounder integrated systems) make a constant two tone noise in my experience.
The red on white EXIT signs that are standard in most of the US are a bit weird to me, becuase most countries now use some variant of the white on green "running man" sign. The UK has used variants of the running man signs since the second half of the 1990s, and its most recent revision which you see in buildings built or refurbished in recent years is virtually identical to the newer signage in Canada (many of the running man signs in your video are various older ones).
In high rise buildings, and hotel rooms there are usually map layouts of the floors on each level, and all residential rooms showing the fire routes to the nearest emergency exit, and a lot of signage within or around stairwells and corridors would be placed lower on walls near the floor in case they are smoke filled and so can be seen when crawling on the ground too.
Great video. Fire blankets appeared at London Underground stations during pandemic, when alcohol gel hand sanitising stations were installed at every station. Could be coincidental, but my guess is that they were connected to a risk assessment relating to alcohol hand gel. In the UK, there is a large variety of sounds that notification devices make (bells, warbling tones, sweeping tones, continuous tones, sirens, voice alarms etc.) - there doesn't seem to be a standard signal like the US temporal 3. The tone that the fire alarm makes seems to be dependent on the age of the system and the manufacturer.
I'm from the UK and in my experience the older fire alarms from the 90s and before are loud and scary sounding. They'll defiantly get your attention. Banshee and Roshni sounders are the loudest which are still widely used but older and rarer ones like the Strident, Minimite and Super M sirens are probably the loudest ones ever used in the UK.
And the old 1990's gent
@@aviationtrainsfc1 The Gent 1500s were by far the loudest. My primary school had them.
The UK is very similar to NZ, meaning that you will find very similar devices. However, their smoke detectors are a bit different, and the call points. We use running man exits and the typical "exit" lettering exit signs. Here's some interesting information about UK extinguishers: Back in the 70s, there were 5 colors: Blue meant powder, black meant CO², white meant foam, red meant water and green meant halon/bcf. They changed the color to having red with a colored band after that. They used to use (and probably still do use) the cartridge opertated model every now and then. Chubb was a big company, and still is. They make products and inspections. However, the UK Chubb extinguisher is different to the Australian one that we use. Apart from that, they are very similar to us in devices. Very nice video!
Hi mate firstley great video. Im in the uk you will see on my channel emergency lights, The red wiring to fire alarms is usualy when alarms are added through out the buildings life sometimes they where just installed like that. I also think the green man exit signs are better and should be in all contrys for diffrent languqe reasons, I hope you liked the uk FIRE SAFETY SYSTEMS!
The annoying thing about UK fire alarms to the US is we don't have a set tone like Code 3. I've been in buildings where a fire alarm has sounded but not been instantly recognisable as a fire alarm - it sounded like a car alarm outside the building. My workplace has a range of sounders set to different tones. It's quite a disorientating sound.
Strangely - my smoke alarms at home sound in Code 3!
Many high rise residential buildings have no centralised fire alarm system too. It's a requirement in hotels and houses of multiple occupancy but not high rise apartment blocks.
I'm very glad we didn't get horns installed in schools over here. We had fire bells and they brought enough nightmares.
The US doesn’t either. Code 3 is the standard but not required, and as far as I’m aware it’s the same in the Uk I believe your Hi-lo tone is what is mostly the standard, many of your systems mostly the ones by Honeywell come with it as default.
@ryanhelton1865 yes we do…temporal coding the required standard in 90 percent of cases. Some systems use whoops, but the standardized evacuation signal that is required in most cases is code 3
@@ryanhelton1865 The problem is that Honeywell hi-lo tone is often used for "cautionary" alarms in the UK, such as railway crossings and opening and closing automatic gates. Some places use a upwards sawtooth tone instead to differentiate it from other alarms.
Hey, in terms of sprinklers in the U.S. it varies state to state. For example, when I lived in Utah indeed almost every building was protected by sprinklers, however here in Hawaii it is quite the opposite barely any of the buildings I have been to have sprinklers.
I think Hawaii is an exception. Lower 48 states for the most part are consistently sprinklered
I'd imagine the extinguishers would be intended for staff that have received training for that particular workplace, although anyone who is trained can use them
fire extinguishers are meant to be used by anyone. if they were only meant to be used by staff, I'm sure they will be in a staff area with plenty of signage
There are a couple of other areas which I think are worth a mention as well.
One thing which we do in the UK is we have sounders and beacons that are wired to the addressable loop. This means that a separate sounder circuit (or NAC as you would call it) is not required and is still has the capability of tone and flash synchronisation and also means that that sounder and beacon can be directly fault-monitored; this is also why we use base sounders a lot of the time. Conventional sounders can still be found on many conventional systems and older addressable system as well though.
Another thing is our implementation of voice alarm. I've noticed in the US that the voice alarm speakers are directly part of the fire alarm and are therefore not very versatile. In the UK, we use separate voice alarm systems that are interfaced with the fire alarm but are effectively separate systems. This means that they are more versatile and can be used for other purposes such as lockdown/security alerts, general announcements and music. They use normal looking paging speakers but they all use ceramic terminal blocks, wired in fireproof cable, the speaker lines are monitored for faults and some system will also have backup amplifiers that are use if the main amplifier fails.
In terms of what you mentioned about beacons, there used to be no standard for how bright beacons should be so each manufacturer would just make to a design they thought was best; that meant there was a lot of variation in brightness and coverage. Now with EN54-23, they have categorised beacons into VADs (Visual Alarm Device) and VIDs (Visual Indicating Device). VADs have standardised light output which means the brightness is consistent across the area they cover and a lot of companies now choose to do them in white (I personally prefer red as it is more obvious that it means fire). VIDs are effectively beacons before EN54-23 came in; they can still be used if VADs are not required by the risk assessment and many companies still make them for this purpose as they are cheaper and do not have the strict requirements of where they can be mounted. Many companies no longer make VIDs though.
I completely agree with what you said about sprinklers. Not enough buildings have them and it is surprising the standards haven't been updated, especially since the Grenfell Tower fire. The new Student Centre at my university has no sprinklers despite it opening in 2021. Hopefully the standards will update soon
Interesting comments. I like that your systems have loop powered sounders. Very innovative. Our speakers are also usable as everything you mentioned: we have them interfaces with paging speaker or sometimes even use them as general paging devices.
@@FireAlarmDude5967 Ah right okay, didn't realise your voice alarm systems were capable of that too. I've never been to the US but the ones I've seen online always seem to just be for the fire alarm and that's it
Im from the UK, and from what ive seen, it seems there may not be a requirement for older buildings to have sprinklers installed
(As to how much of this is down to making it easier for “Listed Buildings” to comply, im not sure, Listed buildings are essentially protected from modifications, and you cannot legally make changes without getting special permission (with some exceptions), im not sure how fire alarms work with listed buildings, if they are supposed to install wireless systems wherever possible or what (Wireless systems DO exist, i have seen such a system))
Ive only ever seen an integrated “light ring” on a smoke detector go off, and the one i saw did not strobe, but was more like a simulated spinning light, so unfortunately I can’t really comment on what the standalone strobes are like
I know Canadian buildings have signage above their fire alarm boxes (pull stations) and some parts of the US.
Hey dude, alot of our fire sprinkers are concealed within the drop celing and the little cap pops out when they are activated. I find alot of our fire safety laws are relaxed although still very safe.
Thanks for your comment. Concealed fire sprinkler heads are very common in the United States as well. I didn’t see very many sprinkler systems in the UK, including systems with those heads.
Certain types of AFFF foam extinguishing agent are non-conductive and could be safely used to put out electrical fires of mains voltage.
This is the most basic kind of requirement many buildings go away above this. We have much of a system where it’s assessing the fire risk compared to in America. I believe it’s blanket rules it’s very dependent on the situation. The United States require sprinkler so you can get out the building because they usually would a brick building is going to be stand fire probably for enough time
hey British person here. We do have sprinklers in every building as its a requirement but we have lowered ceilings as most of the US does but we have caps over out sprinkler heads. It still works the same as if they weren't there but it helps prevent damage to the sprinkler heads. If there were to be a fire then the heat would cause the heads to expand causing them to pop out and then the fire reaches the sprinkler heads and activates them. I've actually seen this in action before myself as there was a fire in a shopping centre known as ASDA and as we were being evacuated I was recording and got it on video of how it all worked. And in the event we don't have a sprinkler system in a room we have fire ducts. There are 2 separate fire alarm systems one is made for evacuation and the other is for fire ducts. If there were to be smoke or heat detected it would active the fire duct panel (a different panel to the evacuation panel but usually the same make and model) and then the fire vents would open and all windows would open in the building. The fire duct panel does not cause a evacuation although there are 2 identical smoke and or heat detectors right next to each other (identical) so one is for fire evacuation and the other is for smoke duct. We also have a orange call point usually the same make and model as the fire alarm call points but they are wired to the smoke duct system and are ladled emergency vent open. when pressed all windows open but leaving the fire ducts closed. only a manual push on the control panel would open the fire ducts but a key and or code is required , other than that only smoke and or heat can cause the fire ducts to open. Hope this was some nice information! Let me know if you want to know anything else!
My school has STI alarms on the extinguishers. They are not even connected to the extinguishers lol
Just now I looked into the regulations regarding sprinklers in the UK
From what I can tell, it seems sprinklers are only required in commercial buildings that have large open areas, or newer blocks of flats
As I suspected, it seems existing/older buildings are not required to be fitted with sprinklers
That explains why the new building of the school I went to in 2012 had sprinklers (as there were two rooms which likely required sprinklers, plus the hallways, which were large open areas, and the design of the building was just asking for a fire on one floor to make its way to the other floor, you could look down from the upper floor down onto the ground floor hallway, and there were no fire barriers of any sort fitted, at least none I could see, there were even a few false activations of the fire alarm, and nothing happened that would have prevented fire from getting between floors, that building did have an odd quirk which suggested it was designed with an extension in mind, there was talk about the building possibly being extended, and the classroom numbers were even laid out to accommodate an extension without the numbers getting weird, during the time I was there, construction of the extension never started, and I don’t know if it ever went ahead)
I’m from uk and we’re taught in school what fire extinguisher for what fire
I wasn't
The UK is great when it comes to signage. However, it definitely lacks behind the USA in almost every other area when it comes to fire safety. The UK even adopts a lot of NFPA guidance. I have managed fire safety for both UK and US clients so I am familiar with both codes (though most of the UK’s fire regulations are non-prescriptive).
Fire inspections in the UK are lax and carried out by privately hired inspectors rather than state fire marshals (which don’t exist in the UK - in the UK a fire marshal is just a low ranked watchman). As you mentioned sprinkler systems are also lacking and the regulations are quite far behind. The UK hasn’t adopted low-level exit signage which is growing fast in the US. Many buildings have very limited egress routes (Grenfell had just one staircase and no alternative exit). Final exit doors often open inwards due to council regulations that prohibit doors from opening outwards onto a public highway, whereas in the USA every exterior commercial door opens onto the street. There’s no standardized alarm tone (like T-3) so alarms are often confusing or ignored, which is coupled with a very lax safety culture. There’s no requirement for strobes so visual notifications are rarely present. LSZH (low smoke zero halogen) cables are also practically non-existent. Just a few things that immediately come to mind.
The UK tends to look good but behind the appearance there's a lot of problems and no real attitude for change.
You should do on video on Japanese fire alarms and emergency equipment.
Ill be honest, fire alarm systems in the UK are more advanced, all thats good about our pull stations is that some have ADA compliant pull stations that can't be pulled accidentally like the simplex T bar or BG-12.
Interesting opinion
@@FireAlarmDude5967as someone who has been over to the Uk and seen how their systems worked UK fire alarms are way more advanced than what we have in the states.
Take Honeywell pride company GENT By Honeywell it is the most advanced fire detection system in the market and sadly isn’t available in the US.
Also look at the world trade centre they use British fire detection devices because the detection devices we have on the dates are not as advanced as the ones in the Uk.
Sadly we are behind.
But I’d recommend checking out some GENT by Honeywell system on TH-cam I had a little look amazing systems just a shame Honeywell never made them available in the US they would have made a killing.
I think In newer buildings they do have sprinklers fitted in their by law but older buildings you don’t need to some reason I don’t know why but I am from the uk
Gent Vigilon is a great british fire alarm
Why the breakable glass callpoints? You might cut your finger badly activating one. I understand the reason to do it and save your’s and other’s lives but still, shocking that there are no regular pull stations.
Most call points are no longer break glass and the break glass call points won’t cut your fingers
The glass has a film over it, so when you break it, it will "snap" rather than shatter - sort of like a shatterproof ruler. It's more common to find resettable ones nowadays anyway :)
The glass has a film around it and only snaps down the middle, wouldn't cut your finger.
Most now are resettable plastic elements
Great video! UK fire alarms are different in the UK than in the USA
They are not alot of sprinklers in the uk all 20% did in all of the buildings i went in I live in the uk actually and my favourite fire alarm company is gent
Uk : did pull fire alarm
Us fire alarm:ok
Uk police:what do you mean! 😂😂😂
The only problem with the UK call points is that the glass breaks and needs physically replaced, this isn't cost effective... especially when they are deliberatly vandalised or abused, especially in school when there was an afternoon where they would be set off all the time... we had to walk out and back in school most of the afternoon that day lol. Soon as you sat down, mins later another one. 😅 at least some have accident prevention, protective flaps over them now
Not anymore, majority of call points from 2006 onwards are now resettable.
You can now also purchase plastic elements for older call points like the ones in the photo so they are too resettable.
our country also owns nice intruder alarms stay safe friend !
I’d love to see Mexico’s fire alarm system!
Cool I definitely wanna get fire alarms from different countries
UK fire alarms are cool!
U need to go to San Diego California
I have
Nice video
Amazing video!
I live in uk Are strobes are red some are white but it not as common and not really legal are red strobes are for people to see Whare sound is coming from and to interact that’s it’s a fire alarm it also help’s people who are deaf most newer public buildings have sprinklers especially restaurants and coffee shop however some old buildings don’t such as church’s and it’s very rare you would have them in homes how ever in Scotland ionisation smoke alarms and smoke detectors are banned from being sold in shops and landlords must have smoke alarm they are wirelessly connected something that in time will definitely be found in howl of uk law are alerms also sound completely different to the ones in the USA and we have many different tones on on different brands of alerm the most common tho is roshi and the Apollo both on default sound tho some new alerms sound alerm for about 30 seconds gives a message telling you to basically leave and continues on a loop.
Mind, I have seen a klaxon sonos sounder with a small, led, white strobe. MC fire and security got one if you want to check it out. You might have to dig through 😂😂😂
Royal guards
Nice video!
Stop disturbing me I'm busy watching JML-
OK nvm
im bri'ish
uk fire alarms are better !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting opinion
they truly are