When it comes to life safety solutions for Houston offices, reliability is the biggest factor. In many cases, reliability can be quickly questioned when constant and disruptive false alarms come into play. Not only are false alarms annoying to employees and guests within your commercial building, but they can also be a huge productivity disruptor – leading to unneeded downtime and revenue loss. Additionally, repeated false alarms can cause employees to ignore the warning sound, instead of jumping into action when mere minutes matter. If you want to be sure that your life safety systems perform at full capacity, then take every false alarm as a warning sign that your system might need maintenance. At Wilson Fire Equipment, we can help you understand the preventable issues that a false alarm might be indicating.
The three causes that are usually the culprits for false alarms include:
- Environmental contaminants
- Inadequate maintenance
- Human error
Use this blog as your guide to the three most common causes of life safety system firm alarms and how we can proactively mitigate them.
Environmental Contaminants: The Invisible Threat to Safety Systems
Sometimes, the smallest environmental contaminants can be a massive difference in the precision and accuracy of your fire detector or other life safety solution. The fire sensor detectors are known for being extremely sensitive to the specific particles that indicate a potential fire or the presence of smoke, but sometimes, they can easily be triggered by everyday environmental contaminants. This is the most common trigger for life safety false alarms, and unfortunately, they are often unavoidable.
Most smoke detectors work by sensing the light patterns when particles enter the sensor’s internal chamber, which is called a photoelectric system. When smoke appears, its particles are usually much denser than other vapors, which causes the light beams to reflect onto the sensor, triggering the fire alarm. However, because of this, other large, non-combustible particles can trigger the same response because of the density of the vapor.
Combustion generates the only real difference between smoke and other vapors. This results in extremely fine and consistent carbonaceous particles that signal a true fire event. When the vapor is from other environmental sources, the particles aren’t combustible, but their size is still able to redirect the light and signal the alarm.
The Most Common Environmental Particle Groups
These environmental triggers are surprisingly normal, with even simple actions such as a quick vaping break or a heavy cleaning spray can trigger a false alarm. Here are the most common triggers for false life safety alarms:
- Vaping and e-cigarettes
- High humidity and steam
- Aerosol sprays
- Heavy dust, dirt, or insects
Because of how common all of these triggers are for most commercial settings, a great way to proactively avoid them triggering continuous false alarms is by choosing the correct sensor technology. For example, at Wilson Fire Equipment, we help every client find the correct sensor for their unique needs. Two primary types of modern life safety solutions on the market today are photoelectric or ionization, or a combination of each.
Photoelectric devices are best for slow-smoldering fires because they are incredibly sensitive. However, this also makes them more likely to react to things such as steam or dust. Ionization is more reliable when it comes to fast-flaming fires because of the design. These systems are created with a small amount of radioactive material that makes a consistent, yet weak, electric current between two charged plates. Particles trigger them when they disrupt this energy current, meaning the device can pick up even extremely small particles. However, because of this design, it can commonly be sensitive to cooking fumes because of the fast spreading movement.
Inadequate Maintenance — When Your Life Safety Solutions Become the Problem
Having a fire system for your commercial office is mandatory, but having the system alone isn’t adequate prevention. In order to fully maintain your life safety solution, you need to invest in consistent, proactive maintenance from a professional provider such as Wilson Fire Equipment in Houston.
This is primarily because most smoke detectors’ internal sensor chambers will continuously accumulate dust and other environmental particles. As this builds up over time, the sensitivity of the detector will start to drift away from the baseline reading for clean air, making it much less sensitive than the manufacturer’s specification might have promised. When this happens, it is referred to as the “drift,” and it can be extremely dangerous due to the sensor becoming overly sensitive or dangerously insensitive.
Because of this, you must professionally clean and test detectors annually or biannually. At Wilson Fire Equipment, not only can we carefully clean and check your life safety systems, but we also help our Houston clients with maintaining an orderly log of all fire alarm maintenance and inspections – ensuring their systems stay operating at full capacity year-round.
Human Error: Stopping Fire Detector Accidental Activation
While modern life safety solutions are designed to avoid false alarms, there is one element that can be highly unpredictable: Human triggers (such as a poorly designed, easily misfired pull station or bad life safety solution placement) pose a unique and extremely frustrating threat for many Houston buildings. The most specific scenarios that trigger a human-error false alarm include:
- Accidental manual pull station activations
- Hot work or construction nearby
- Incorrect panel operation
- Unannounced testing
The best way to stop human error from triggering false fire alarms is to install a physical protective cover for pull stations. We can install transparent protective covers that serve as a deterrent from unintentional triggers.
Additionally, if construction of hot work nearby is triggering alarms, we can specifically isolate the life safety solution units near the site in order to prevent false alarms. When it comes to this kind of solution, working with a professional fire safety company like Wilson Fire Equipment is integral in order to mitigate risk after the construction is complete.
Lastly, a complete fire safety system is useless unless your entire team is on board with all protocols and standards. At Wilson Fire Equipment, we recommend mandating training on the proper use of fire alarms and creating effective evacuation plans for when seconds count.
Securing Your Office with Reliable Life Safety Solutions
Life safety solutions save hundreds of lives every year, but the truth is that although the technology carries the brunt of the responsibility, they would be less effective without diligence and commitment to system maintenance. If your commercial office in Houston is struggling with relentless false alarms that upend your employees’ schedules and productivity, then addressing these three primary factors for most false fire alarms is the best solution. By understanding your system, you can set your office up for optimal success and safety, without questioning the validity of every alarm.
At Wilson Fire Equipment, we not only strive to provide full-scale life safety solutions for our clients but also to educate them on the integral upkeep and maintenance of their devices. Don’t let your office fall victim to false alarms and ineffective safety plans; work with us to gain the utmost confidence in the system and its technology. Contact us today for a free life safety solution estimate for your Houston business.