Ramtech Electronics’ WES+ wireless fire alarm system is protecting over 2,000 Bowmer & Kirkland personnel and nearly half a billion pounds’ worth of its clients’ assets on three university developments.
Bowmer & Kirkland has recently specified identical WES+ systems at its £130m Lincoln and £330m Northampton university projects.
The £25m student accommodation project at Coventry University, which includes an eleven, eight and five storey building, is located on Hales Street in the Lady Herbert’s Garden Conservation Area in the city centre. When complete it will be home to around 1,200 students.
WES+ fire alarm system was specified by the developer’s site management team at Coventry because it is EN 54 compliant and offered them a number of usability benefits associated with the fact that it is a wireless system.
Being wireless means that the units can be repositioned quickly and easily as construction progresses and without the need for the specialist trades required with wired fire alarm systems. The choice of manual call points and/or automatic heat and smoke detectors means that sites are be protected from fire 24/7 even when personnel are not present on site.
WES+ is now protecting workers on all three Bowmer & Kirkland university projects by sounding a site wide alarm in the event of a fire. If a manual call point or automatic heat/smoke detector is activated it sounds a site wide alarm that allows personnel to evacuate to a muster point.
Ian Haigh, Site Services Manager at Bowmer & Kirkland’s Millennium View development in Coventry, said: “WES+ offers us a number of important compliance and usability features that we have not found in other systems. We specified it for Coventry University because it is a fully compliant fire alarm system developed specifically for construction sites, which means it protects our workers from the dangers of fire and our client’s assets.”
Being a wireless system also means that nominated Bowmer & Kirkland personnel only require a basic demonstration in order to be able to reposition the WES manual call points or automatic heat/smoke detectors as construction work progresses.
With WES+ it is possible to add, remove and clone units with a few button presses, meaning that the system is scalable for any size of construction project. To eliminate false alarms and lost work hours on site, the WES+ system uses Category 1, Euro-harmonised radio in compliance with European standards covering the use of radio technology in emergency equipment (ETSI 300-220-1).
