NFPA 72 and the IFC - How Do They Work Together?

NFPA 72 and the IFC
How Do They Work Together?
Building Professional Institute
May 26, 2017
siemens.com/buildingtechnologiesUnrestricted © Siemens AG 2017

Unrestricted © Siemens AG 2017
05.26.2017Page 2 Ben Adams
Ben Adams
Started in fire alarm industry in 1996
NICET Level IV
Finance degree from UTA
MBA from TCU
GM – Siemens Building Technologies
Leader – DFW Nonprofit Geeks
Fire Advisory Board Member –
NCTCOG
Past Adjunct Instructor – Northlake
College/Construction Education
Foundation

Agenda
• History
• Industrial revolution
• Evolution of technology
• Fire insurance
• Model code development
• Professionalism of the fire service
• Interactions among the various codes
• Nationally recognized testing
laboratories
• Model code organizations
• Authorities having jurisdiction
• Testing and certifying organizations
• International Fire Code
• Important information
• Key concepts
• NFPA 72
• Important topics
• Applying the IFC and NFPA 72
• Plan review
• Inspection
• Wrap up

History

Pre-industrialization

Apprentice trade work, e.g. blacksmithing

Industrial revolution leads to development of factories

Factories harnessed energy to build machines

Initially, water wheel power increases in scale

Steam power (1775)

Telegraph (1830s)

Public fire alarm boxes (1852)

Kerosene (1853)

Petroleum (1859)

Electric light (1879)

Urban migration
Year Urban Rural
1790 5% 95%
1890 35% 65%

Limited liability stock company

Sea power helped consolidate raw materials and distribute finished goods

Warehouse storage of raw materials and finished goods

Dense housing

Few worker rights – unsafe work conditions

Greater focus placed on fighting fires

Reliance on fireproofing, e.g. cast iron columns

Early sprinkler protection with perforated wooden pipes

Early sprinkler protection with roof mounted water tanks

Parmelee sprinkler

Early sprinkler valves and heat detectors

Continued fire losses in sprinkled buildings

Devastating fires

Insurance company bankruptcies
Great Chicago fire of 1871
• Covered 3 ½ square miles
• Burned 18,000 buildings
• Left 100,000 people homeless
• Bankrupted 68 out of 200 insurance companies
Great Boston fire of 1872
• Destroyed entire mercantile district
• Covered 40 acres
• Bankrupted an additional 32 insurance companies

Factory mutual insurance companies

Increased focus on professional fire service

Independent efforts to write standards
In 1881, the New York Board of Fire Underwriters sat down and developed rules
for Electric Light Wires, Lamps, etc.
This is pretty remarkable considering Edison only invented the lightbulb around
1879
In 1882, the National Board of Underwriters adopted the new rules developed
by the New York Board
In 1890, a committee representing the National Electric Light Association
prepared a “Code of Rules” and published it in 1891
In 1893, several insurance organizations came together and agreed to
the National Code of Rules for Wiring Buildings for Electric Light and Power.

Consolidation of standards at the turn of the 20th century
By 1895, there were five regional electrical codes in the US
In 1895, numerous independent groups came together
The first actual committee meeting for The National Electrical Code was held in
1896
The first NEC was published in 1897
NFPA began publishing the National Electrical Code in 1911 as a sponsor

In 1895 in Boston, several concerned individuals met to discuss standardizing
fire sprinkler systems
Underwriters Bureau of New England
Factory Mutual Fire Insurance Companies
New England Fire Insurance Exchange
Factory Insurance Association (later Industrial Risk Insurers)
Providence Steam and Gas Pipe Company (later Grinnell Fire Protection)
Boston Board of Fire Underwriters

These individuals continued meeting and developed a Report of Committee on
Automatic Sprinkler Protection (later NFPA 13)
In 1896 in New York, several of these individuals met at the New York Board of
Fire Underwriters with several other concerned individuals
They formally organized as the National Fire Protection Association
After tweaking some of the work from the previous year, they adopted the
new standard for automatic sprinklers

From the very beginning, NFPA organized technical committees to work as
subject matter experts and approached rules development through consensus
The original articles of the NFPA restricted membership to Stock Fire Insurance
Organizations
This was amended in 1904 to permit inclusion of other interested parties
The first city fire official to join NFPA was Battalion Chief W. T. Beggin of the
New York City Fire Department

Initial focus of codes
Reducing fire area (floor square footage and building height)
Electrical standards
Fire protection components

Nonprofit efforts to create “model” codes
A few nonprofit orgs eventually came to prominence in the US
These organizations wrote rules, but did not have authority in and of themselves
to enforce their rules
Application and enforcement required someone with legal authority over a
developer or building owner
We call the entities with legal authority over a building, the authority having
jurisdiction
The authority having jurisdiction - or AHJ - is the one with the actual power to
force a builder or owner to build the building a certain way
It makes sense, though, for a collection of subject matter experts to develop
standardized rules instead of individual municipalities

In the early 20th century, there was great separation between major cities
In 1910, it took 21 hours to get from Chicago to Boston on the fast train
(48 hours on the regular train)

20th century model code organizations
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM)
Building Officials & Code Administrators International (BOCA National Building Code)
International Code Council (IBC/IFC)
International Conference of Building Officials (Uniform Building Code)
National Board of Fire Underwriters (NBFU)
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 5000)
National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA)
National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST)
Southern Building Code Congress International (Standard Building Code)
Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

Consolidation in the 1990s: NFPA 72
1990 NFPA 72
NFPA 72A (1987)
NFPA 72B (1986)
NFPA 72C (1986)
NFPA 72D (1986)
NFPA 72F (1985)
1993 NFPA 72
NFPA 71 (1989)
NFPA 72 (1990)
NFPA 72E (1990)
NFPA 72G (1989)
NFPA 72H (1988)
NFPA 74 (1989)

Consolidation in the 1990s: ICC
Building Officials & Code Administrators International (BOCA National Building Code)
International Conference of Building Officials (Uniform Building Code)
Southern Building Code Congress International (Standard Building Code)
Formed International Code Council in 1994
Had initial participation from NFPA but disagreements led to
separate development of NFPA 5000

How decision-making differs between ICC and NFPA

Expansive influence of ICC

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Modern day regional code efforts: NCTCOG

NCTCOG years ahead of IFC
Addressable fire alarm systems
Individual point reporting
http://www.nctcog.org/envir/SEEDevEx/codes/

Interaction among the
various codes

The IBC and IFC specify what is required

NFPA 72 specifies how fire alarm and mass notification systems must be
installed

Product standards specify rules for manufacturers

Nationally recognized testing laboratories (NRTLs)

Authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs)

Testing and certifying organizations

Installers and maintainers

International Fire Code

Five things we have to know
Occupancy classification
Height of highest occupiable floor
Occupancy load
New or existing
Sprinkled or not

Occupancy classifications
Assembly
Business
Education
Factory
High-Hazard
Institutional
Mercantile
Residential
Storage
Utility & Miscellaneous

High rise buildings

Occupant load
Every section starts out by stating the occupancy threshold at which a fire alarm
is required
Big buildings require fire alarm systems
Small buildings don’t
Occupancy load is how we know whether the building is big or small
*If the designer didn't include this information with their submittal, you can estimate it pretty quickly by dividing the square
footage by the square foot per person values from the IBC for that occupancy classification
• this isn't exact and completely ignores exit width requirements
• you're likely to err on the side of estimating more occupants rather than less

New or existing

Sprinklers

Key concepts
Manual fire alarm system
• pull stations at the points of egress (doors exiting the floor or building)
• occupant notification
Automatic fire alarm system
• smoke detector
• flame detector
• heat detector
• sprinkler system (sprinkler heads are heat detectors)

Key concepts
Emergency voice/evacuation alarm system
• speakers instead of horns
Sprinkler monitoring system
• if 907 does not call for a manual nor automatic fire alarm system, 903 still
requires that the sprinkler system be monitored
• just because the same product may be used to achieve both fire alarm
system control and sprinkler monitoring system control, does not mean
that the installation of a “fire alarm control panel” causes you to have a fire
alarm system

What if the code is silent?

NFPA 72
National Fire Alarm &
Signaling Code

907.6 Installation. A fire alarm system shall
be installed in accordance with Sections
907.6.1 through 907.6.5.2 and NFPA 72
IFC reference

Focus
Power supplies
Wiring and circuits
Initiating devices
Notification appliances
Remote monitoring
Inspection and maintenance

Power supplies
Source: Kenny Wilson

Wiring and circuits
If there is an open circuit, all the devices up to the open must remain operable
NFPA 72 additionally defines some more robust circuits that allow all devices to
operate with a single open (Class A) or even with a single short (Style 7)
NFPA 72 has requirements for protecting wire crossing evacuation zones
(typically a floor in a high rise)
• this is typically performed using a series of two-hour rated electrical rooms
stacked on top of each other
• alternatively, CI cable may be used

Initiating devices
A lot of the focus is on spacing
• from each other
• from exits
• from air registers

Notification appliances
Similarly, many of the requirements for notification appliances are
focused on spacing
There are also rules for voltage drop calcs
Source: Jeffrey Allen Baker

Remote monitoring
Current code requires that if
phone lines are used for
monitoring, there must be a
second method of
communication

Inspections and maintenance

Applying the IFC and
NFPA 72

Information needed for plan review
provide a brief summary of your scope of work
provide building occupancy classification
provide building occupant load
indicate whether the building is new or existing
if building is existing, indicate whether there is a change of
occupancy classification
indicate whether building is provided with automatic fire sprinklers
throughout
provide datasheets for all equipment and devices being installed or
connected to (except for devices provided by others where you are
just monitoring dry contacts, e.g. waterflow switch or kitchen hood
system)
provide battery calcs for all fire alarm panels, power supplies and
amplifiers
provide voltage drop calcs for all notification appliance circuits and
releasing circuits (e.g. solenoid)
provide amplifier load calcs for all amplifiers being installed or
added to
provide a floor plan that shows every device, panel, power supply
and amplifier being installed
on the floor plan, show point-to-point wiring for all notification
appliances, initiating devices and all devices installed connected to
a signaling line circuit (SLC)
on the floor plan – for conventional fire alarm systems – identify the
zone of every initiating device
on the floor plan – for addressable fire alarm systems – identify the
address of every addressable device
on the floor plan, identify the candela rating of every strobe
on the floor plan, identify the wattage of every speaker
if building is existing, show all existing devices within the areas that
are in scope for this submittal
disclose ceiling height if installing devices on the ceiling
provide a symbol legend that includes all symbols used on the plans
provide a schematic representative riser diagram
provide a narrative of the sequence of events and/or an input-output
matrix
indicate the size (AWG) of all wire
indicate the type of all wire (e.g. FPL or FPLP)

Determine what type of fire alarm system is required
Occupancy
Classification
Occupancy
Load
Highrise?
Fire Alarm
System
Requirements

Review plans

Review calcs
Default Wire Gauge 16 AWG Total Wire Distance 610 ft Resistance per 1000' Total Resistance
Initial Voltage 20.40 vdc Total Voltage Drop 3.47 vdc 17.0% End-of-Line Voltage Minimum Voltage 16.00 vdc
Available Current 2.0 A Total Current Draw 1.852 A 92.6%
Device#
Reference
Symbol
Distancefrom
Previous
Device
SafetyMargin
(ForDrops)
Total+&-
WireDistance
WireGauge
Ohmsper
Foot
Wire
Resistance
Device
CurrentDraw
CurrentDraw
toEndofLine
Voltageat
Previous
Device
VoltageDrop
Voltageat
ThisDevice
Percentage
VoltageDrop
fromSource
1 S1 EGC-VM (15cd) 10 ft 10 ft 40 ft 16 AWG 0.00508 0.2032 0.109 A 1.852 A 20.40 vdc 0.38 vdc 20.02 vdc 1.8%
Manufacturer Model #
5.080 ohms
16.93 vdc
CIRCUIT IS ACCEPTABLE
3.0988 ohms
VOLTAGE DROP CALCULATIONS
Enter Job Name Here Enter Power Supply Model # Here
External Power Booster #1 Notification Appliance Circuit #1
C O M P A N Y
N A M E H E R E

Review sequence of events

Don’t forget the little things
Is the APS planner licensed with this company?
http://www.tdi.texas.gov/fire/fmli.html
Company/Licensee Search
If wire is going between buildings, are there surge suppressors?
Is anything missing? Duct detectors?
If they’re tying into existing equipment, is that shown and did they provide
revised calcs for the existing equipment?

Field inspections
Make sure that everything on the drawings got installed
Make sure that it was installed properly and works as designed
Make sure that the building is actually laid out the way it was shown
• keep an eye out for walls that are different than the plan drawings
• this could impact initiating or notification spacing
Check the sequence of events to make sure that inputs and outputs operate in the right order
Look closely at strobes that are supposed to be >15cd to make sure that the installer changed the
default setting
Look above the ceiling to make sure that the wire is properly attached and supported
If you’re feeling ambitious, have the installer take down a strobe or smoke detector and disconnect
the wires so that you can verify the monitoring of wire integrity
Explore - don’t just go where the installer is trying to show you

Conclusion

Parting thoughts

Thank You
Ben Adams
Siemens Building Technologies
General Manager – South Texas
12001 Network Blvd Ste 318
San Antonio, TX 78249
Mobile: (214) 674 6458
E-mail: benjamin.adams@siemens.com
siemens.com

NFPA 72 and the IFC - How Do They Work Together?

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