Cold, dust, water and false alarms problems solved by Spire

A reliable and accurate fire alarm system is essential for your business’s safety and continuity, especially in manufacturing spaces, warehouses, cold storage and food production facilities.

Fire alarm systems are usually based on two types of highly sensitive detectors:

• Ionisation and photoelectric (optical) smoke detectors
• Heat detectors

The issue is that these standard style detectors are prone to false alarms through build-up of condensation, dust particles and dirt. That can be a problem if you run a cold storage facility, a manufacturing facility with different temperature zones, or any indoor facility using diesel vehicles, for example.  

Struggling with damp or wet smoke detectors?

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Smoke alarms and condensation

Condensation can severely affect the performance and accuracy of smoke detectors. Condensation can be caused by:

• Rapid or extreme changes in temperature
• High ambient humidity
• Installations that include a non-insulated electrical box (often ceiling mounted)

Cold stores and cold fridge-like environments create a lot of cold air condensation, which results in moisture build-up within smoke alarms. This can seriously affect the function of both photoelectric and older ionisation smoke alarms. 

Photoelectric smoke alarms use reflected light to detect the presence of smoke in a chamber. When condensation builds up, the water droplets reflect the light like dust particles. Condensation can also build up on the sensor too, like a fogged up windscreen in a car, triggering a false alarm. 

Spire have carried out installations in these damp environments by using an aspirating smoke detector (ASD). This device is installed outside the cold areas and samples the air using a pipe system. Since the air is drawn away from the location, it can be filtered to remove dust. We added water traps to the system to remove the water in the air, and immediately prevent false alarms. 

At Spire F&S, we design fire system for all types of environments, to maximise protection and coverage whilst minimising the opportunities for moisture to build up. Call us to discuss your specific requirements.

Fire alarms in dusty and dirty environments

Even with the best extraction equipment and clean working practices, manufacturing facilities with heavy plant or tooling machinery can be dusty and dirty places. 

Regular smoke detectors can’t tell the difference between smoke and other air-born particles, including those in diesel fumes, and trigger a false alarm all too frequently. With each false alarm requiring an immediate evacuation and/or emergency shutdowns, this can seriously impact on your business bottom line, with lost productivity and workflow interruptions. 

CASE STUDY: In facilities where standard smoke and beam detectors simply won’t suffice, a VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus) can be installed instead. Spire successfully installed VESDA VLI industrial smoke detection units in multiple client warehouses, where diesel and dust were present from plant machinery. By continuously sampling air from various points in the premises, the pipe aspirating smoke detectors (ASDs) provided exceptional sensitivity, long-term stability, and configurable alarm levels, eliminating the need for evacuation from false alarms. 

Fire alarms in cold environments using standard smoke detection

Whilst VESDA systems are highly effective, they also represent a major investment in the detector unit/s and connecting pipework. At Spire, we often work with existing systems to upgrade and improve, and solve issues through smarter thinking, better design and detector positioning.

CASE STUDY: One ice cream manufacturing facility was plagued by false alarms due to condensation accumulation. Every time the fire alarm was activated, the entire building had to be evacuated, and the current batch of ice cream was ruined. Every batch of binned ice cream cost the company £20,000. 

Management was almost at their wit’s end when they contacted us at Spire. In the two weeks before we took over the management of their fire alarm system, the building was evacuated four times, costing a teeth-tingling £80,000. 

We used a simple method of adding delays to the fire alarm, to give the security guard time to investigate the cause of the activation. 

• If it was found to not be a fire (i.e. a false alarm), he would clear down the fire alarm, and the workers could continue making ice cream undisturbed. 
• If they found a fire, a call point was pressed, sounding the alarm for instant evacuation of the building. 

This case study shows how our pragmatic approach struck a balanced between compliance risk versus budget. This is a completely legitimate approach within health and safety rules that saved thousands of litres of product from literally going down the drain, and re-established the company’s trust in their fire safety system too. 

Heat and smoke alarms FAQs

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About the author

David Whiteside is both Founder and Managing Director of Spire. David has been involved in the Fire & Security industry for over 15 years, experiencing the services at all technical and project levels. With a keen eye for detail, a passion for quality of work and unparalleled customer service, David ensures Spire F&D delivers a service that meets and exceeds to the demands of any industry and sector.