Recommended Practice on Commissioning & Integrated Testing (NFPA 3)

Electrical Inspector/Compliance Coordinator in the Engineering and Utilities Division of Harvard University, Paul Dunphy, discusses NFPA 3 Recommended Practice on Commissioning and Integrated Testing of Fire Protection and Life Safety Systems: "I see many different sides of a new building going up from conceptual design to finish. The buildings today are complex. built on schedules that are driven by cost and move-in times. A lot of them come together rather quickly towards the end before the occupants move in. So this rush to the finish is something we have to make sure that the building is complete and NFPA 3, as it is embraced, is going to make sure that at the critical time that we're not only looking at monetary goals or move in goals.

We're going to be looking at life safety in these buildings before they obtain a complete certificate of occupancy. If an entity is going to build a new building they'll have registered design professionals, they'll have construction management companies, general contractor, subcontractors. They'll all be on that initial commissioning team very early on in the project.

There's a new position we've identified in NFPA 3 as an ITA, an integrated testing agent. This is a very key player for the owner. He's going to be really involved from the get go-when they're in design right through construction documents and permitting and building and then in the end he'll basically be the orchestra leader for the commissioning and integrated testing.

The buildings that we're building today are just so complex. The systems that go in there to protect the occupants are critical. absolutely critical to life safety. It is so important that we design these systems properly. That the systems are commissioned and completely tested in the end before occupancy. And then going forward the systems will need to be checked. We've got right now in the NFPA 3 document a five year retest recommendation. NFPA 3 benefits the general public. It's critical to people's life safety.

National Fire Protection Association. Re-Cx. Re-commissioning. RCx. Retro-commissioning. Integrated Systems Commissioning. Integrated System Testing. NFPA Publications. Qualifications of Commissioning Personnel. References for Extracts in Recommendations Sections. Building Owner. Fire Alarm Systems. Occupancies. Commissioning Team. Active fire protection. Passive fire protection. Life safety. Construction process. Inspections. Fire Inspector. engineering and utilities division. electrical inspector. electrical inspections. compliance coordinator. Compliance in new buildings. new construction.

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Education

Tags:

• NFPA 3
• Re-commissioning
• Life Safety Systems
• Integrated System Testing
• Active fire protection
• Passive fire protection
• engineering
• NFPA
• Fire Alarm Systems
• Sprinkler Systems
• Management