Posted By John Taylor I have been informed by our alarm company that the existing fire alarm system in our building which is a three wire 240vlt system no longer meets the standard set by the fire authority / and insurance companies .Is their any legislation or specification that makes it necessary to change and carry what would be an expensive refit

Posted By Hilary Charlton I had the same thing last week - I was told that our fire alarm did not meet specification because, believe it or not, the cables (all correctly within spec) were tied up with plastic tie cables not metal! The theory behind this is that the plastic tie cables will melt bringing the cables into contact with the fire which will then melt and then the sounder will cease to function. One assumes that by the time the fire has got to the stage where it will melt the fire alarm cable then anyone left in the building would be dead anyway and so the sounder ceasing to function would be somewhat academic. However, the Fire Brigade and the Insurance Company have both been in and have certified this OK and within spec so may be someone is looking to make some money here? As the previous respondent said, get it checked by the people who actually matter and see what they say.