European Standards

[Guest Mico]

You may have heard that BS 4737 is due to be withdrawn on August 31, 2003 in favour of the European Standard BS EN 50131 series. The current position is that the BS EN series consist of about 9 standards of which only two have been published. Therefore to remove a standard, albeit old and out dated but still works, in favour of one that is not available may be considered by some as a cook up

The insurance industry, whilst aware of the position and the feelings within the industry are still pushing for this to happen as soon as possible and they seem to be supported by the SSAIB. The BSIA, Nacoss, manufacturers and others are tryin to get the date of withdrawal postponed.

What has to happen in the UK is for a document to be produced that will cover the differance (called PD 6662), but this will not happen by Aug 31. Therefore it has been accepted that systems will be continued to be installed and certificated to BS 4747 even though it has been technically withdrawn.

There are some interesting technical differences between the requirements of BS 4737 and BS EN 50131 which (as in all the best tales!) I will save for another time B)

Regards Mico

[Service Engineer]

Your quite right Mico, I attended a conference in coventry today which confirms your statement.

Although EN50131 will proceed as planned on September 1st, the older BS4737 standards will run along side them for several months.

Also DD243 is due for a re-vamp, expect revision 1 soon.

And lastly all installers will soon need to have relevant qualifications, for which ever job they do.

Persons responsible for:

Risk Assessment,

Design,

Installation,

Maintenance,

and Repair

will all be required to hold appropriate qualifications.

Due to the new classes of Alarms this standard introduces, for a class 2 or 3 alarm system you should also expect around a 40% increase in cost and costings of a compliant installation.

Class 4 compliant systems may see around an 80 to100% increase in cost. (Luckilly this wont apply to the majority of installations)

[Guest Mico]

I'm not sure who advised on the imminent update of DD 243. It surely needs attention but it will not go away. The main points the Bsi commitee will discuss relates to clarification for manufacturers on whether panels can be unset using a keypad if the customer losses his ACE.

There has also been some correspondance regarding the use of dual detectors, in the same housing, and whether this meets the requirements of two detectors giving confirmed signals. It appears that the standard does not allow for both detectors to be in the same housing but there may be a case for updating the standard.

These items have been muted but the Bsi commitee responsible have to address the European Standard and BS 4737 first. The next meeting is in July and there are still technical matters to be resolved.

It could be some months before the DD 243 matters are discussed , agreed and published.

[Service Engineer]

I havnt stated the DD243 update is imminant, but I was at an SSAIB European Standards Training course only yesterday, and they were relaying the latest information given to them only 2 days prior to the meeting by the BSi.

The NSi also attended, along with an expert on insurance who gave guidance on Risk Assesment, a Director from Cooper security discusing how the new standards will effect panel design and the inplications to the installer. And Redcare made a guest appearance, because they hosted the event.

DD243 is due to be revamped, but its not imminant, it will take several months.

[Guest Mico]

Thanks for the information Dave, I was just interested in what was being suggested at the event you attended. There is a lot of rumor regarding these standards throughout the industry and, as you will know you, it leaves a lot of uncertainty amongst those who earn their livelihood this way.