A Comprehensive Guide to Smoke Control Systems for Fire Protection

 If you find that the smoke control system of your building premises is not functioning effectively, then you may seek fire sprinklers repair. Accordingly, in this guide, we’ve prepared the smoke ventilation regulations and guidelines. You need to know the ways to be definite about the standards for smoke ventilation and figure out the methods to choose the proper smoke ventilation systems for your building. 

 

Smoke Control System 

 

A smoke control system happens to be a mechanical blueprint to practically regulate the direction of smoke if there’s any fire, deterring it from circulating through a building. Smoke control systems can secure the people inside buildings and ensure firefighting experts can access the premises without any smoke-related injuries or difficulties. Being a critical life safety system, smoke control solutions must be installed and maintained by a competent person dealing with fire sprinklers systems service in California or other locations with the skills and expertise to ensure optimum performance if any fire breaks out in the building. 

 

Types of Smoke Control and Smoke Ventilation Systems 

 

Dedicated smoke control systems comprise natural extractions and mechanical extraction systems. AOVs (Automatic Opening Vent) is a popular category of the natural smoke control system, activated to open by either a smoke detector, triggered by hot smoke’s natural buoyancy or a manual alarm. Other categories of smoke control systems are atrium exhausts, opposed airflow, and smoke reservoirs. 

 

Difference Between a Smoke Control System and A Smoke Clearance System 

 

Smoke control systems are different in concept, compared to smoke clearance systems. Smoke control systems function to restrict the spread of smoke during a fire, whereas smoke clearance systems facilitate the ventilation of the smoke once a fire has been extinguished by the fire alarm systems in Glendora, or elsewhere. 

 

Type of Ventilation System Suitable for Your Building 

 

The type of smoke ventilation system you acquire will depend on the category of property that you intend to protect. Various buildings necessitate distinctive levels of smoke control management, and you must be legally obliged to provide maximum safety. Usually, factories, multi-story buildings, warehouses, and malls will need particular systems. 

 

In a large single-story warehouse, a fire can spread faster compared to other buildings. This comes down to the large size of the compartment where smoke can rise faster into the roof space, spread sideways, and once the roof space is full, begin to ‘build down’. The rate at which this happens differs according to the nature of the combustible contents and the geometry of the building. If there’s any unventilated scenario, then a building with a volume of 10,000m3 will be smoke logged within a few minutes only. 

 

On the contrary, industrial and manufacturing sites might require industrial ventilation systems to dilute air full of contaminants with fresh air, and they accumulate and eliminate all dust or smoke that poses a threat to the occupants of a building. During a fire, these harmful toxins may spread in the smoke. Similarly, industrial and manufacturing sites are additionally susceptible to harmful toxins in the air. As a consequence, industrial ventilation systems defend individuals from contaminants, are economically viable, offer quality control to the air, and enhance air quality. 

 

Whereas, in flats and maisonettes, smoke containment in collective areas and escape routes will be of immense significance, particularly if the building is multiple storeys high, to confirm that firefighting personnel can fulfill their responsibilities with utmost success. 

 

If installed properly by the providers of the fire sprinklers systems service in Glendora or elsewhere, smoke control systems should ensure that escape and access routes are free from smoke, to facilitate firefighting operations, minimize the risk of the fire intensifying further and save the contents of the building contents from smoke damage. 

 

Ways Smoke Vents Are Tested 

 

Smoke control systems should be maintained every six months so that all parts are performing and functioning to their optimum level. There should be regular maintenance of smoke vents. For Automatic Opening Vents, smoke detectors must be tested with a telescopic smoke testing unit. Accordingly, their sensors will test the AOVs. The smoke detectors should be cleaned annually to avoid contamination and false alarms. 

 

A crucial test to consider will be to mitigate AOVs trap hazards while closing. To ensure that motorized AOVs don’t pose a ‘trap hazard’ while closing, switches adjoining them must remain depressed to continue with the closing operation. Basically, the mechanism must pause once the switch is released. This configuration can mitigate the risk of trap hazard to a passing occupant. Each AOV within 2.5m of floor level must feature some sort of ‘mitigating procedure’ or safety device fitted and checking these forms part of the inspection. 

 

After assessing AOVs in action, they must be evaluated for wear and tear and fixed wherever necessary. You may add a repeater panel to your smoke vents as well, to signal a green, amber, or red light based on whether there are any faults. 

 

Inference 

 

A well-qualified installer should be an expert to fit smoke control and ventilation systems and should have exposure in fire strategy verification, system design, installation, and commissioning according to the relevant industry standards.