When you have a fire alarm system installed inside your business, you want to make sure it’s ready to spring into action at any sign of danger. You don’t want your system to take too long to alert you and others in your building about the presence of smoke or fire. Nevertheless, at the same time, you don’t want your fire alarm system to go off accidentally all the time. If you experience too many false alarms in your building, people may stop trusting your system and fail to respond accordingly during a real fire alarm. It’s like the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” effect, which surely businesses want to avoid.
There are some steps you can take to avoid false alarms with your company’s fire alarm system. By taking these steps, you’ll ensure that your fire alarm system only goes off when there is really a fire. You and everyone else in your building will be a lot safer when you have a reliable fire alarm system. Here are some of the things you can do to steer clear of experiencing too many false alarms.
Make sure your fire alarm system is installed properly at the beginning.
First things first: When you have a new fire alarm system or new fire alarm system equipment installed in your building, make sure the job gets done right. Hire a professional installer to put your system or your equipment into place the right way. An installer will know where to put things like smoke detectors so that they don’t go off for no reason.
Stop dirt and dust from building up on your smoke detectors.
If you work in a building that’s especially dirty or dusty, there is going to be dirt and dust that builds up on the smoke detectors in your fire alarm system over time. This dirt and dust could potentially cause false alarms with your system if you don’t make an effort to wipe them away every so often. Get into the habit of walking around and vacuuming your smoke detectors to stop dirt and dust from taking a toll on them.
Prevent too much humidity from building up in your facility.
Is there a lot of humidity in your building? It could cause your fire alarm system to go off every now and then if it gets to be bad enough. You should set out to find a way to remove as much of the humidity as you can. You should also be careful about putting smoke detectors into specific areas in your building where high humidity is unavoidable. A professional installer should know not to put smoke detectors in these places and should find better spots for them.
Keep small insects away from smoke detectors and other fire alarm equipment.
Believe it or not, small insects can have an impact on the smoke detectors in your fire alarm system at times. Some insects are so tiny that they don’t have any trouble squeezing up into smoke detectors and making them think there might be a fire in your building. It’s a good idea to have an exterminator get rid of a pest problem in your building if you have one. You don’t want insects to be the cause of a faulty fire alarm system.
Avoid storing strong chemicals near your smoke detectors.
There are some smoke detectors that have proven to be sensitive to the particles that strong chemicals put out into the air. If your company has any especially strong chemicals in your building, you should keep them away from smoke detectors that could pick up on them. Find an area to keep strong chemicals where they won’t interfere with your fire alarm system and cause problems.
Schedule professional maintenance for your fire alarm system every so often.
It’s not enough to simply rely on a professional fire alarm installer to install a system for you and then assume it’ll work properly forever. You need to schedule maintenance on your system and have it serviced over the years. This will let you know if there are any parts in your fire alarm system that aren’t working right and need to be replaced.
Replace any faulty parts in your fire alarm system as soon as possible.
If you find that a part in your fire alarm system isn’t working the way it’s supposed to, replace it as soon as you possibly can. Faulty parts can lead to false alarms. They can also prevent a fire alarm system from detecting a fire in some cases and put your entire building at risk. It’s better to be safe than sorry if you suspect that a part in your fire alarm system might not be doing its job.
Does your company’s fire alarm system have a part in it that needs to be replaced? Life Safety Consultants has a large selection of commercial smoke detector and fire alarm parts available. Call us at 888-557-0558 to order any fire alarm parts you might need for your building.
