FIRE SAFETY
Don’t overlook regular smoke fan maintenance
Simon Plummer, Divisional manager for Axials at Nuaire, says ongoing smoke fan maintenance is key for working buildings to remain safe and compliant when it comes to smoke management and fire safety.
Many people are surprised to learn that in fire situations, most fatalities suffered are due to smoke, not the actual fire. In 2021 over a third1
of fire-related fatalities – where
a cause was known – were attributable to people becoming ‘overcome by gas or smoke’, and yet still smoke management in buildings is, unfortunately, a thing that isn’t seen, and therefore misunderstood. Smoke is a product of fire, and should
therefore be treated – in terms of safety – as seriously through the building management system (BMS) and fire safety alarm system – not just at the design and specification stages of a build, but right through the whole process, including installation, testing, maintenance, and service. Smoke fans, or high temperature axial fans, have been supplied to the marketplace for over 40 years. They are the main airflow driver with a smoke control system, and respond to alarms, but before 2005, not all fans were created equal.
Older standards set out that high
temperature axials, and the motors on which they run, could be certified by the factory where they are made, not necessarily independently, meaning there was room for problems to occur. As a result, worryingly, many of these fans may now not be fit for purpose.
Testing and compliance rules have changed With the new regulation in the Fire Safety Order and Building Safety Act (PAS 8670),
the rules around testing and compliance have positively now changed. Nowadays, all smoke fans need to meet set building legislation, and to be certified to EN12101 Part 3 to be specified. Performance is now independently tested by third-party test houses, and independent factory audits are conducted through the BSI, meaning that fans going into new-builds are up to the job. Disturbingly though, these standards
are not retrospective, and where a building has a pre-2005 fan installed, there is no legislation to say that it should be replaced. Emergency use fans for heat and smoke control systems, manufactured for safety- critical operations, should be replaced as a good practice every 25 years, and yet we know that isn’t the case. It is unfortunately common that when a building is finished and handed over to facilities management teams, problems come to the fore. As smoke control fans and their
associated motors are a life safety product, maintenance rules differ from those applied to normal fans. Anything that operates on the alarm system must be tested periodically and maintained accordingly – in this case, prevention really is better than cure. We wouldn’t dream of running a car for five years without a service or MOT, and yet we are just assuming that our smoke management systems are working as they should without regular testing. Fan maintenance and servicing are often overlooked or put off, as such work isn’t
Smoke fans, or high temperature axial fans, have been supplied to the marketplace for over 40 years. They are the main airflow driver with a smoke control system, and respond to alarms.
as straightforward as simply testing to ensure that the smoke alarm works each week. These fans are often hidden away – in ceiling voids, up on roofs, or stuck up inside a riser – so are easily missed, or simply too inaccessible for a maintenance engineer to reach. Smoke control fans often only run during testing, or if called upon to perform a primary smoke control function. Dual mode fans will also work, however, to ventilate a building as well as perform this role, and – as a result – will see more wear and tear on the fans over time. This means that as a critical component within the building, steps must be taken to ensure that they operate effectively during an emergency, as well as day to day – known as the ‘smoke control duty’.
How a building is used When looking at any testing of these fans, it’s important to think about how a building functions over time. It’s rare for a building to be continuously used for the same purpose as it was originally designed, and yet as these changes occur and office layouts and occupancy levels change, we often don’t stop to think about how these changes might affect the
January 2024 Health Estate Journal 85
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
