Why Is Preventative Maintenance on Your Low-Voltage Fire Life Safety and Security Systems So Important?

If you drive a car, you understand the necessity of routine maintenance. The last thing you want is to have the equipment fail when you need it the most. The same is true for your low-voltage fire life safety and security systems. When one of these platforms fails, the harm to your business could be severe. However, unlike a car, an engine light won’t come on when a system is about to fail or failing. That’s exactly why preventative maintenance on your systems is so important.

The necessity of preventative maintenance

An increasing number of organizations are choosing integrated fire life safety and security systems for their facilities. Today you see these systems in government buildings and correctional institutions, hospitals and clinics, educational institutions, and other types of commercial properties. Integrated low-voltage systems can include:

• Access control

• Alarms

• Barrier systems

• Biometrics

• Fire detection

• Mass notification

• Motion detectors

• Smart fences

• Video surveillance, analytics, and recording systems

Not only is the inspection and routine maintenance of these systems important, in most areas and in fire life safety systems it is a legal requirement. Preventative maintenance of your integrated systems has a number of benefits, including:

• Creating a safer work environment for customers and staff

• Preventing noncompliance and false alarm penalties from local authorities

• Avoiding business losses with faster police and fire response

• Saving the costs of unmaintained and broken-down equipment

• Keeping your fire marshal (and staff) happier, particularly during surprise visits

• Instilling a culture of safety and security throughout your organization

Each facility and location will have a different set of systems and processes for low-voltage system maintenance. However, the goal is to ensure that these systems work properly when you need them. This is especially important for the systems you use rarely but depend on heavily during a critical event.

Examples of typical fire life safety system maintenance

While the maintenance requirements vary by location, preventative maintenance on your fire life safety system is generally a requirement in the following settings:

• Fire sprinklers must follow the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA’s) “Standard for the Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems.” These rules require weekly, monthly, and annual inspections of these systems.

• Backflow preventers should be checked to keep your facility’s drinking water safe and to help ensure the sprinkler systems work properly.

• Fire suppression system inspections should occur twice a year to ensure proper functioning.

• Kitchen hood fire suppression systems should be looked at bi-annually, with a visual check of the systems monthly. These systems are vulnerable to grease clogs and damage by the normal activities in a busy commercial kitchen.

While maintenance and inspections are required on these important features, most large facilities have access control systems, mass notification, screening and detection systems, and more. All of these tools require periodic inspection to help ensure that they will work properly when you need them the most.

Maintenance on computers and video surveillance systems

In addition to the alarms and access points that make up your low-voltage security system, the computerized parts of the infrastructures play an important part in making the systems work together. Hardware and software play a role in your video surveillance systems, even if the data captured is stored in a cloud environment. Making sure you’re running backups, along with having the right antivirus protection, is critical. For video surveillance, having your maintenance team check cabling or the IP camera connections, as well as cleaning and generally checking up on your “eyes and ears,” is important.

Risk is a part of using technology to improve lives because the myriad parts can fail without regular maintenance. Facilities managers should understand that, in the same way a vehicle needs maintenance, the components of a low-voltage fire life safety and security system also require it. Having a documented maintenance plan in place with review deadlines and the scope of each inspection is critical to your organization’s security.

TRL Systems offers peace of mind with our preventative maintenance service plan to keep your low-voltage systems functioning properly. Call (855) 266-6595 or email us at fire@TRLsystems.com to talk with our team today.