DEFINITIONS
Approved: means acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction
Authority Having Jurisdiction: is the organization, office or individual responsible for approving.
Labeled: equipment or materials to which has been attached a label, indicating manufacturer compliance with appropriate standards or performance in a specified manner.
Listed: refers to equipment, materials or services included in a list published by an organization that is acceptable to the authority having jurisdiction and is concerned with evaluation of products or services, maintains periodic inspections of the production, and whose listing states that the equipment meets appropriate designated standard or has been tested and found suitable for the specified purpose.
APPLICABILITY
Codes: technical documents specifying circumstances under which a given type of protection is required. NFPA, EN, ISO are examples of codes, and are generally adopted into law by jurisdictions that regulate the built environment.
Installation Standards: detail how the protection specified by the code is to be achieved, also include details on use, maintenance and testing. Are generally cited in regulations.
Products Standards: specify functions and capabilities of the equipments and conditions under which they must operate. Products Standards are required by the authority having jurisdiction. UL and FM are the most common cited product standards.
Codes can eventually content installation and product performance requirements.
Codes and Standards are developed under a consensus process, involving several parties such as fire services, government officials, building officials, manufacturers and private citizens. From full-scale laboratories test to simulation modeling and calculation methods are used to increase the scope, details and making equivalency easier among codes.
Authority Having Jurisdiction is responsible of determining how a standard is applied. If conflicts arise in two or more standards, the designer should propose a solution for approval.
Requirements in standards from different countries add complexity to the decision making process when it comes to design and products selection. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) works in correlating standards in pursuit of a worldwide consensus for systems requirements.
References:
-NFPA 72, National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code
-ISO 7240 Fire Detection and Alarm Systems
-R.W. Bukowski, “Fire Alarm Signaling Systems”