We all use tools and test equipment to perform our daily work. Sometimes, it’s a basic hand tool, such as a screwdriver. Sometimes, it’s more sophisticated. Technology continues to play an important part in the design and installation of fire alarm and fire emergency voice/alarm communications systems (EVACS).


As you probably know, any large addressable fire alarm system or fire EVACS will require a technician with a computer and the appropriate software to program the various devices and the system to operate as the design engineer specified. Although you may not think of a code book as a tool, NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, provides a guideline for testing your installed fire alarm system. It also shapes how you install wire and raceway and physically connect all of the devices, appliances and controls that make up a fire alarm system. The code requires testing everything you install.


It all begins with a plan—or several. First, you must create a design plan to determine the locations of all devices, appliances and controls. Second, you need an installation plan to determine how to most efficiently install the system and its components. Third, you need a test plan to ensure you not only check the entire system, but also you test it in accordance with the code requirements.


NFPA 72 2013 requires you to write a test plan that clearly establishes the scope of the fire alarm or signaling system tests. This plan and the test results must be documented in the testing records.


The authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) expects you to use the test plan to ensure that you know how to test devices, appliances and system control units, along with any ancillary components. The availability of testing or other personnel, or the need to minimize the interruption of building operations, will normally dictate your testing approach. Because you will generally test a new system before occupancy, all other trades working in the building must be notified that the tests will occur. Because it may affect other systems in the building operation, such as the elevators; the heating, ventilating and air conditioning equipment; and other emergency control functions, you will want to include the affected trades in your test plan development.


You should know that the testing requirements prescribed in NFPA 72 for fire alarm and signaling systems end at the emergency control function interface device. The code states, “The testing of emergency control functions, releasing systems, or interfaced equipment is outside the scope of NFPA 72.”


If your plan includes testing all other systems that integrate with the fire alarm system, you need to follow NFPA 3, Recommended Practice for Commissioning and Integrated Testing of Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems, which provides guidance for such testing.


As stated previously, the test plan provides an important tool to ensure you know what you must test and how to do it.


Given the nature of software-driven systems, you may need an oscilloscope to determine whether the circuits have any form of induced voltage that may affect the system’s operation. In most cases, you will need a standard volt/ohm meter. In other cases, you may need the detailed results from a scope.


Additional test equipment will include a sound-level meter to measure the volume and clarity in all areas where you have installed appliances to meet the codes’ audibility requirements. Include a copy of the floor plans that you will use during the test to ensure you record the sound levels in all of the spaces to verify your system complies with code requirements.


The physical testing of each device in your installed system must follow the procedures outlined in NFPA 72 2013, Table 14.4.3.2. For example, test smoke detectors in place to ensure smoke entry into the sensing chamber and an alarm response. The code requires the use of “canned smoke” or a listed and labeled product acceptable to the manufacturer or in accordance with their published instructions. You may also use other methods listed in the manufacturer’s published instructions that ensure smoke entry from the protected area, through the openings in the housing and into the sensing chamber.


For heat detectors, you must perform a heat test with a listed and labeled heat source or in accordance with the manufacturer’s published instructions. Of course, you must also ensure that the test method for the installed equipment does not damage the nonrestorable fixed-temperature element of a combination rate-of-rise/fixed-temperature element detector.


By now, you should realize that the code is an important tool when testing fire alarm and EVACS. Include a copy of the code with your other test equipment to ensure that the system you have installed meets operational and requirements; it’s another reason to have a copy in every truck!