A Testing Plan That Spreads the Work Over Two Years
A five-story mixed-use building has a six-year-old addressable system with 210 initiating devices and 88 notification appliances. The last annual test was performed 13 months ago. The servicing company proposes to test 105 devices this year and the other 105 next year, to check smoke detector sensitivity every third year, to place the panel in "test mode" on Friday afternoon and leave it there until Monday morning, and to keep the Record of Completion "on file at the office" rather than at the panel. Separately, a sprinkler control valve in the basement has been closed for three weeks; its supervisory signal was silenced at the panel and never investigated.
1. Evaluate the proposed test plan against NFPA 72 inspection, testing, and maintenance requirements.
Read the worked answer
Two of the four proposals are non-compliant, and one creates a life-safety exposure.
- Alternating 50 percent per year: not acceptable. NFPA 72 requires 100 percent of initiating devices and notification appliances to be tested at the annual interval specified in the testing table (Chapter 14, Table 14.4.3.2 in the editions typically adopted). Splitting the inventory across two years leaves half the system untested for up to 24 months.
- Sensitivity every third year: not acceptable. Smoke detector sensitivity must be checked within one year of installation and every alternate year thereafter, or per the manufacturer's listing if that is more restrictive.
- Test mode left on for a weekend: not acceptable. Test mode defeats alarm processing and transmission. NFPA 72 requires notification to the AHJ and the monitoring company before testing, and the system must be restored to normal operation promptly after each test - not left disabled for 60 hours. Overnight disabling also exposes the building to a genuine event that no one is alerted to.
- Also required: test notification appliances for audibility and intelligibility where applicable, verify transmission, verify that the 13-month-old test is brought current, and record results.
2. What is wrong with how the closed sprinkler valve has been handled, and what must happen now?
Read the worked answer
A silenced supervisory signal is not a resolved supervisory condition.
- A closed control valve is a supervisory condition, not a trouble to be acknowledged away. The signal exists to tell someone that the sprinkler system is not in service. Silencing it at the panel without investigating removes the only notification while leaving the hazard in place.
- NFPA 72 does not permit indefinite silencing: supervisory signals require investigation and the condition must be corrected, not masked. NFPA 25 governs the valve's restoration, lockout, and the required notifications.
- Immediate actions: reopen and verify the valve, confirm the supervisory signal restores at the panel, log who closed it and why, notify the AHJ and the insurance carrier of the impairment and its duration, and apply the impairment procedure retroactively for the three-week period - including determining whether a fire watch should have been established and documenting that determination.
- Review panel supervisory/silence configuration so that a silenced supervisory re-sounds or otherwise re-annunciates as the code requires.
Judgment point: the panel doing what it was told is not the same as the building being protected.
3. What documentation should exist, where should it be kept, and what should it contain?
Read the worked answer
Documentation is part of the system, not an office file.
Records that should be on site and available to the AHJ on request:
- Record of Completion and, where applicable, the Record of System Acceptance, reflecting the installed configuration.
- As-built/record drawings and the sequence of operations.
- Battery and voltage-drop calculations for the control unit and any auxiliary power supplies.
- Current test and inspection reports for each device and appliance, with pass/fail results, sensitivity readings, deficiencies noted and their correction, and tester identification and dates.
- Manufacturer's instructions and the device list, plus monitoring company account information.
Practice points:
- Records must be retained and made available to the AHJ; leaving the Record of Completion at an off-site office fails the practical purpose of the document - a responding firefighter or inspector has to be able to read the system configuration at the panel.
- Deficiencies must be tracked to closure, with the owner notified in writing, not just noted and forgotten.
- The next test due date should be tracked so the 13-month gap does not repeat.