Health & safety Smoke detection S
technology for buildings Grainne Murphy, marketing manager at Analog Devices, explains how to navigate the myriad of regulations and certifications when it comes to smoke detection tech
mart building technology is evolving to transform static buildings into living, efficient entities known as intelligent buildings. This
development requires technologies to drive lower running and maintenance costs. The megatrend of greener buildings, zero emissions, and a lower carbon footprint requires more modalities to be monitored and controlled within a building. Some of these solutions and measurements are to enhance worker comfort and productivity. However, buildings also require solutions and measurements for safety, which are being driven by increasingly stringent regulations. In safety, smoke detection has the biggest challenge: saving lives. The smoke detection market has innovated due to some key factors, including:
Growth in industrial buildings: The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts growth in global buildings’ floor area at approximately three per cent per year. This is driven by increasing urbanization and improved access to energy in developing countries.
The increasing use of synthetic material within buildings.
That is why, where the value proposition is as basic
as human life, smoke detection regulations are critically important. The challenge is that false evacuations can cause downtime and panic, particularly as buildings are now designed to hold thousands of people (for example, the Boeing Everett Factory in Washington was designed to hold approximately 40,000 people). Kitchens that generate cooking vapours or steam can cause false alarms in precisely the locations where smoke detectors should not be disabled due to nuisance alerts. In a genuine emergency, there is now less time to evacuate a building due to synthetic materials that may be smoldering and where fumes can quickly kill. New fire regulations now specify there should be minimal false alarms and an increasingly faster alert time for real fire incidents. This article will examine some of the pending and current global standards and what it means for smoke detection technology and its market. There are two predominant smoke detection technologies used in smoke detector systems:
Ionisation systems have a small amount of radioactive material between two electrically charged plates. This ionises the air and causes current to flow. When smoke enters the chamber, it reduces the flow of current and activates the alert/alarm. Some European countries and US states have banned the use of ionisation detectors because they have not always detected early state fires.
Photoelectric smoke detectors use light to detect fire. Inside the alarm, there is a light-sensing chamber that uses light to detect smoke. When smoke is present, it deflects the LED light into a photodetector. As soon as light beams hit this sensor, the alarm is activated.
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January 2021 UKManufacturing
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