BRE and the FIA need your help
We need your help!
The Building Research Establishment, Fire Industry Association, Scottish Government, National Fire Chiefs Council and AICO are performing a collaborative research project to understand the influence of time and contaminants on the performance on heat alarms used in domestic dwellings1.
The core aim of the project is to test “used” heat alarms, specifically any aged greater than 5 years or any that appear to be contaminated. 51 contaminated heat alarms have been tested to date, but we need additional alarms to provide meaningful and credible results. It is anticipated that the results will be influential in supporting changes to codes and standards and thereby improve the integrity of fire safety systems used in our homes2.
Key to the project is the acquisition of suitable samples of “used” heat alarms and we are looking for your assistance.
If you are in a position where you have access to heat alarms that meet the above requirement and are willing to provide them to BRE then please send an email to Gemma Sambells (Gemma.Sambells@bregroup.com) at BRE with an estimation of how many samples, you could provide. Following your initial email, you will be requested to provide further information and then you will be given the address of where to send the samples3,4.
All parties providing samples for test will be acknowledged in the resulting publication.
Notes:
- This project is focussed on domestic heat alarms, however, a similar project on commercial heat detectors is also active – please also contact us if you can help us acquire samples of these.
- Significant funding has been provided by the partners to cover the testing, assessment, and reporting of the results but the project will only be successful if a good number of samples are acquired. We are hoping to obtain over 200 samples from various environments and sources.
- It would also be helpful to know the model(s) you are most likely to provide.
- Please complete the questionnaire (attached) and return it with each sample. This has been designed to capture & record the essential heritage of each sample but includes some additional questions and fields to capture relevant information.
