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Preface

The 2013 edition of NFPA 72^®, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code, represents the culmination of over a century of signaling standards. The first signaling standard, NFPA 71-D, General Rules for the Installation of Wiring and Apparatus for Automatic Fire Alarms, Hatch Closers, Sprinkler Alarms, and Other Automatic Alarm Systems and Their Auxiliaries, was written in 1899. That document was only fifteen pages in length, including the committee report! We are certain the original framers of that document would be astonished to see what their work looks like today.

Fire alarm signaling has come a long way since NFPA published that fi rst signaling standard over one hundred years ago. Many technologies related to fi re alarm systems have evolved, while others have changed little since the middle part of the nineteenth century. For example, conventional fi xed-temperature heat detectors and McCulloh loops have not changed signifi cantly since they were invented in the late 1800s. Many technologies emerged in just the past thirty or forty years. More recent technologies, such as electronic addressable analog smoke detectors and analog heat detectors, continue to develop and improve. Additionally, the computer age has ushered in an era of major changes in fi re alarm system control units. Software-driven system designs have resulted in fi re alarm systems that are more fl exible, richer in features, and easier to test and maintain.

As computer systems are becoming more sophisticated, fi re alarm system designers are integrating these systems more with other building systems such as HVAC systems, security and access control systems, energy management systems, and mass notifi cation systems. Requirements have been incorporated in the Code in an effort to keep pace with this ongoing evolution in integrated system designs and to preserve the integrity, reliability, and performance that are essential for fi re alarm systems. Integration of these systems requires technicians from both the fi re alarm and non-fi re alarm system fi elds to possess a more detailed and functional knowledge of these Code requirements. Systems integration also requires a more complete understanding of the application and operation of the various building systems technologies and how they interact with fi re alarm systems. Education will continue to play a critical role in the understanding and application of fi re alarm systems and their integration with other building systems. This edition of the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code has continued to retain requirements for performance-based designs as they continue to play a more prominent part within the building process. The acceptance of performance-based designs on an equal footing with traditional prescriptive designs establishes an environment and incentive to perform much needed research. The fi re alarm industry has and will continue to research and develop a better understanding of the metrics needed to model fi re scenarios and predict detection system responses to those scenarios. More and more commonly, fi re protection needs are served more effectively and precisely by performance-based approaches than by those based on the more traditional prescriptive rules. Performance-based approaches are not limited to fi re detection and are becoming more widely used in the areas of audible and visible signaling and in the design of mass notifi cation systems. This continued growth has been refl ected within the Code both in terms of new requirements and in terms of information provided in the annexes and supplements in this handbook.