Revised Carbon Monoxide Code Now Includes Campus Buildings, Dorms

ST. CHARLES, Ill.
Published: November 30, 2008

The 2009 edition of the National Fire Protection Association’s carbon monoxide code covers all types of educational facilities and spells out requirements for installing, testing and monitoring detection devices.

Carbon monoxide (CO) has leapt to the forefront of the life safety discussion as awareness of the dangers of this odorless, colorless and invisible gas has increased. According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, unintentional CO exposure accounts for an estimated 15,000 emergency room visits and 500 deaths in the U.S. each year.

Although safety officials and administrators have been largely cognizant of the need for CO detection in their buildings, what to install and where hasn’t always been so clear. In the absence of a national standard, local jurisdictions have set their own CO regulations, causing great confusion in the industry.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an international, nonprofit organization that develops and publishes codes and standards relating to fire and other hazards, has just set that national standard on a much broader scale with the release of the 2009 edition of NFPA 720. The 2009 edition comprehensively covers CO detector development, installation, testing and usage. Although NFPA 720 has been around for a while, previous editions of the code only included residences.

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The 2009 edition of NFPA 720 has been completely rewritten and now covers a wide range of building types, including schools, dormitories, rooming houses, hospitals and commercial facilities, such as office buildings.

Besides the inclusion of occupancies other than residences, NFPA 720-2009 specifically spells out the following:

  • CO alarm signals need to be distinct from other signals and indicate sensor failure or end of life.

    In the 2005 edition of NFPA 720, CO detectors were required to be connected to a control panel via a supervisory circuit only. NFPA 720-2009 requires CO alarm signals to be distinct and “descriptively annunciated” from fire alarm, CO supervisory and CO trouble signals. Furthermore, the CO alarm signal should take precedence over supervisory or trouble signals. The actuation of a CO detector or system should be distinctly indicated as a CO alarm signal.

    CO detector trouble signals must be indicated visually and audibly at the control panel and supervising station. Therefore, the CO detector must have an integral trouble relay that will send trouble conditions to the control panel, such as a sensor failure or sensor end-of-life signal.

  • CO detectors are now held to the same life safety standard as smoke detectors: They will send trouble signals to the control panel and facilitate wiring supervision.

    CO detector trouble signals are required to be indicated visually and audibly at the control panel and supervising station. Therefore, a conventional hard-wired CO detector must have an integral trouble relay that will send trouble condition to the control panel such as a sensor failure or end-of-life signal.

    NFPA 720-2009 requires manufacturers of system-connected CO detectors to incorporate the same critical life safety supervision concepts as smoke detection devices to prevent undetected device failures. In addition to the trouble signals noted previously, CO detectors must facilitate wiring supervision.

    The connection between the initiating device circuit conductors and the CO detector are required to be monitored for integrity.

  • CO detector location is more specific than ever.

    The 2005 edition of NFPA 720 had very limited requirements for the placement of CO detectors. The standard required CO detectors to be centrally located outside of each separate sleeping area in the immediate vicinity of the bedrooms and referred to the manufacturer’s published instructions. Instructions differed between manufacturers, however, and this confused installers and Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). Some manufacturers specify installing detectors on the ceiling, for example, while others call for the units to be installed on the wall.

    Based on research conducted by the Fire Protection Research Foundation, NFPA 720-2009 has specific requirements for the location of CO detectors in commercial buildings and dwelling units. In commercial buildings, CO detectors need to be located on the ceiling in the same room as permanently installed fuel-burning appliances and centrally located on every habitable level and in every HVAC zone of the building. In dwelling units, CO detectors must be installed outside each separate sleeping area and on every level of a dwelling unit, including basements. Applicable laws, codes and standards may require additional locations.

  • New secondary power supply requirements for CO detection systems differ considerably from fire alarm systems.

    NFPA 720-2009 requires CO detection systems to have sufficient secondary power to operate the system under quiescent load (system operating in a normal condition) for at least 24 hours. After that time, the system must operate all of the CO notification appliances for 12 hours if a supervising station does not monitor the system. If a supervising station monitors the CO detection system, the 12-hour requirement can be reduced to 60 minutes.

    Although a five-minute requirement is mandated for fire alarm systems, a 12-hour alarm requirement for CO systems is necessary for non-monitored systems because occupants could be away from the unit for several hours. If the CO alarm signal stopped sounding before occupants returned, the occupants would be unaware that there were dangerous levels of CO gas present.

  • Testing requirements have been inserted into the new standard, however, functional tests won’t take effect until 2012, and sensitivity tests won’t take effect until 2015.

    One of the more significant requirements in NFPA 720-2009 pertains to the testing of CO detectors. Many AHJs, engineers and building owners have requested the ability to test a CO detector just as they are able to test a smoke detector with canned smoke. The NFPA technical committee agreed that testing should be required, but it wanted to give manufacturers enough time to implement safe testing protocols.

    Thus, functional testing will only apply to system detectors installed after January 1, 2012. At that time, CO tests will need to be performed at initial acceptance and then annually by introduction of CO into the sensing chamber or element. An electronic check (magnets, analog values, etc.) is not sufficient to comply with this requirement.

    Sensitivity testing will take effect January 1, 2015. In units other than one- and two-family dwellings, sensitivity of CO detectors and single- and multiple-station CO alarms will need to be checked within one year after installation and every alternate year thereafter unless otherwise permitted. After the second required calibration test, if sensitivity tests indicate that the device has remained within its listed and marked sensitivity range, the length of time between calibration tests can be extended to five years.

  • NFPA 720 clarifies what supervisory stations should do when they receive a CO alarm signal.

    One area of considerable confusion in the industry has been what the supervising station should do when it receives a CO alarm signal from the protected premises. Off-premises signal transmission requirements now set a priority of signals. A CO alarm signal must be distinctively indicated as a CO alarm signal and needs to be distinct from a fire alarm signal and take precedence over supervisory or trouble signals.

    If the communications methodology is shared with any other usage, all fire alarm, CO alarm, supervisory, and trouble signals will take precedence, in that order of priority, over all other signals unless otherwise permitted by the AHJ. If the order of the signal priority cannot be assured, the maximum duration between the initiation of an alarm signal at the protected premises, transmission of the signal, and subsequent display and recording of the alarm sig
    nal at the supervising station shall not exceed 90 seconds.

    Upon receipt of a CO alarm signal, supervising station personnel will immediately retransmit indication of the signal to the communications center (where required by the emergency response agency) and contact responsible party(s) in accordance with the notification plan.

  • CO notification appliances must meet certain audible and visible requirements.

    In most cases, the integral sounder of a CO detector will be sufficient for notifying occupants of commercial and residential buildings. The audible CO alarm shall be a temporal 4 signal consisting of a single tone pattern consisting of four cycles of 100 milliseconds +/- 10 percent “on” and 100 milliseconds +/- 10 percent “off,” followed by five seconds +/- 10 percent “off.” After the initial four minutes of alarm, the five-second “off” time can be changed to 60 seconds +/- 10 percent. The alarm signal should repeat until the alarm resets or is manually silenced and synchronized within the notification zone.

    The new standard does not require the installation of CO horns and strobes throughout a building. It allows occupant notification to be limited to the notification zone encompassing the area where the CO signal is originated if the CO alarm signal is transmitted to a constantly attended on-site location or off-premise location.

    The new standard does spell out specific requirements for A/V devices if they are installed. Notification appliances used for CO signaling cannot have the FIRE, or any fire symbol in any form, on the appliance visible to the public. Notification appliances with multiple visible elements shall be permitted to have fire markings only on those visible elements used for fire signaling.

    Lights used for CO signaling shall be clear or nominal white, or it can be another color as required by the emergency plan or AHJ for the area or building. Lights shall not exceed 1000 cd.

Richard Roberts is product manager, Security Business Unit for System Sensor, a St. Charles, Ill., manufacturer of fire and life safety systems. He can be reached at 800/736-7672.

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