When we think about building management systems, we tend to gravitate toward HVAC, lighting and security. This makes sense since we generally are thinking about energy management, energy savings and building security. But what about life safety? There are smoke detectors, horns/strobes and fire sprinklers in many buildings; these will protect us, right? It’s a safe bet they will, assuming they are all functional and in proper working order. These systems are generally inspected and tested periodically per NFPA 25, Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, and NFPA, 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code®. When NFPA 25 is implemented for inspection, testing and maintenance it is a minimum standard, as the scope states: “This document establishes the minimum requirements for the periodic inspection, testing, and maintenance of water-based fire protection systems and the actions to undertake when changes in occupancy, use, process, materials, hazard, or water supply that potentially impact the performance of the water-based system are planned or identified.” The standard goes on to say that you need to coordinate with NFPA 72 testing requirements. Then there is the purpose: “The purpose of this document is to provide requirements that ensure a reasonable degree of protection for life and property from fire through minimum inspection, testing, and maintenance methods for water-based fire protection systems.”
“In those cases where it is determined that an existing situation involves a distinct hazard to life or property, the authority having jurisdiction shall be permitted to require inspection, testing, and maintenance methods in excess of those required by the standard.”
The bottom line is we are relying on a minimum standard to reasonably protect life and property. If the fire sprinkler system is deemed less than that, you can go beyond the requirements of the NFPA 25 standard.
This takes us to a new standard, NFPA 915, Standard for Remote Inspections and Tests. The purpose of this standard states, “This standard shall provide the minimum requirements for the procedures, methods, transmission, data collection, and documentation associated with remote inspections and tests, automated inspection and testing, and distance monitoring performed in accordance with other governing laws, codes, and standards.”
The standard also states: “The purpose of this standard shall be to provide minimum requirements for remote inspections and tests, automated inspection and testing, and distance monitoring to deliver an equivalent or improved result than that which would be obtained with other inspection, testing, and monitoring methods.”
What I like about this standard is the data collection, remote and automated inspection along with the monitoring. We will discuss this further, but let’s get a little background on the creation of NFPA 915 first.
In 2018, NFPA approved the creation of the Technical Committee on Remote Inspections; I have included the origin and development.
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
Interest in the concept of remote inspections began in earnest at NFPA with the NFPA Building Code Development Committee (BCDC), a former NFPA advisory committee that explored this topic over several years. In 2017, an NFPA Journal article, “Verified by Video,” written by the BCDC chair (and the first chair of the Technical Committee on Remote Inspections) Jim Muir, was published. The article described the author’s experience with his jurisdiction’s remote inspection program, introducing this concept to a wider fire protection audience. In April 2018, the NFPA Standards Council received a project request to explore the creation of a new technical committee to develop a standard on remote inspections. In August 2018, the NFPA BCDC published a white paper, “Conducting Remote Video Inspections,” which provided an overview of remote inspection methodologies at the time, as well as practical considerations for application.
In December 2018, the NFPA Standards Council approved the creation of the Technical Committee on Remote Inspections, after which a call for members was posted.
Draft development of what would become NFPA 915, Standard for Remote Inspections and Tests, began in August 2019 and was completed in May 2020. In March 2020, the world experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated interest in remote inspection uses and capabilities. In August 2020, the NFPA Standards Council approved the technical committee’s request to enter NFPA 915 into its initial revision cycle for public review. The technical committee met in 2021 and 2022 to revise the standard in accordance with the NFPA standards development process, creating the inaugural edition of NFPA 915, Standard for Remote Inspections and Tests, 2024 Edition.
Key concepts from the inaugural edition include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The standard applies to remote inspections, tests, automated inspections and testing, and distance monitoring, where permitted by the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) (Chapter 1).
- Several new definitions have been created to help define terms as used within the document. (Chapter 3).
- Responsibilities for the property owner or designated representative, contractor of work, entity performing remote inspections or tests, and the AHJ (Chapter 4).
- Location and timestamp requirements (Chapter 5).
- Data collection/transmission devices, grouped as wireless, digital, nondigital, vehicles, and other data collection/transmission devices (Chapter 6).
- Data collection formats, grouped as video, audio, photography, written, automated testing, and other formats (Chapter 7).
- Data and content protection, retention, and ownership requirements (Chapter 8).
The original concept dealt more with the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) having the ability to remotely witness an inspection; however, this document was expanded due to COVID-19 as inspections, testing and maintenance was put on hold in some areas and delayed for obvious reasons in others.
All this information brings us back to data collection — remote and automated inspection and monitoring, and what it can do for fire and life safety. These systems may have flow switches, pressure switches, tamper switches, solenoid valves for electric release, low/high air switches, fire pump controllers and jockey pump controllers that most of the time connect to a fire alarm system. But what are they telling us about the system other than that these components are idle or in the correct status as designed? What if we could get more information and collect that information; wouldn’t this lead to seeing potential issues that could be corrected prior to an impairment that would make the system or part of the system inactive? What if we could detect a jockey pump that seems to run twice as much as it usually does; could this indicate a small leak that can be located and fixed prior to flooding a building? It absolutely could and has; in a recent installation, the end-user opened the Peerless FireConnect® dashboard to review his system. Peerless FireConnect® showed that the jockey pump ran 60 times before midday, when the average was fewer than 20 runs a day. An immediate investigation was therefore carried out, which identified a leak in the system piping.
The United Association Education and Training Department recently began teaming up with Peerless FireConnect® to monitor the fire pumps in three of our training modules. These 8-foot-by-40-foot freight containers house three fire pumps that we use for training sprinkler fitters who install fire protection systems. This technology can assist in capturing the data during a fire pump test, a fire event, a maintenance issue, and so on. It can also assist in predicting and preventing a failure in the future, potentially saving lives and property damage. There are fire sprinkler monitoring solutions, which is a step in the right direction.
The Smart Connected Fire Sprinkler Monitoring solution from Johnson Controls is a proactive approach to fire sprinkler system monitoring. We’re advancing safety and security by finding smarter ways to save lives, improve businesses and protect where people live and work.
The Siemens Fire Digital Services Bundle provides advanced remote viewing and notification capabilities for Desigo fire alarm systems. This bundle includes a customer service portal, which allows you utilize system performance reporting to analyze events and trends that could affect your business. You can also access your eLogbook for a comprehensive view of fire alarm events, service tickets, and other inspection logs.
These two services use sensors that continuously gather fire sprinkler system data such as pressure, temperature and water presence. The information is relayed to the customer dashboard via the cloud. A proactive notification is sent to the customer identifying the time and location of the adverse condition. This is a good start, but I believe this needs to go further and relieve the building owner from having to check on the status of their fire protection system(s).
There is so much more that we can monitor than just pressure, temperature and water present. However, all of this comes with a cost, and we know money drives the conversation and it’s easy to price yourself out of the market. We need to be aware of this and proceed down the path of least resistance. Generally speaking, 20% of the cost of a building happens during construction, and 80% of the cost is operating and maintenance. This is where I believe a digital twin of the fire protection system can play a roll in monitoring these systems and making sure they remain in compliance.
A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or system designed to accurately reflect a physical object. It spans the object’s lifecycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help make decisions.
Creating a digital twin of fire protection systems for training is where the UA Education and Training Department is heading. We have great partnerships with design software, digital and automation companies and we will be working with them to find the path of least resistance to meet and exceed the requirements of the various codes and standards that affect our industry.
Why are we doing this? It’s simple; we want to ensure that we are keeping up with technology and we are prepared to inspect, test and maintain these life safety systems. The goal is to collect data and create instances of predictable failures that we can predict and prevent. There is much more work to be done, but we are moving forward with technology and training to it!
ASSE Series 15000, Professional Qualifications Standard for the Inspection, Testing and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems, recently completed a revision in which recertification may be accomplished by successfully passing a practical exam or interactive virtual inspection that encompasses aspects of ASSE Standard 15010, Professional Qualifications Standard for the Inspection, Testing and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems. The interactive virtual inspection platform requires the approval of the certification body. We are trying to determine the best option for utilizing this recertification option utilizing digital twin technology.
