I have an R-2 building in NYC with a C of O dated in 2000. I submitted an application with FDNY to upgrade the fire alarm. They are requiring me to connect the proposed FA system via ATS to an emergency generator for a secondary source of power. Batteries are not acceptable as a secondary source per NYC/FDNY. The building does not have a generator because it falls under 1968 building code. The fire alarm has to follow 2014 code (due to initial submission date is pre-2022) Installing a generator in a building is not a simple task and it is very costly ($1M+). Has anyone had this issue before? What did you do in this case? Do you go with a UPS? Is there a way around it?
NYC/FDNY Generator requirement for a New Fire Alarm
- Thread starter EETESLAEE
- Start date
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
I would (VERY politely) ask DOB/FDNY to provide the information that clearly lays out this requirement. Beyond the raw code, the FDNY has an ocean of bulletins they expect everyone to memorize; it might be in one of those. We deal with any number of smaller buildings in NYC that have fire alarm systems but no generator. See below for a very brief overview from NYC DOB;
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pipe_bender
Senior Member
- Location
- Boston
- Occupation
- Electrician
Seems like a bizarre requirement one of them must also own a generator company. Why not just specify how long you need to supply full power for in a outage and its up to the engineer of record to pick a backup system?
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Yes, for smaller systems we see requirements of about 3-5 Ahr for 24-hour standby and 5-minute alarm time. The majority of that is standby time. If you swing an 18-Ahr battery set, you could easily cover up to 72 hours of standby.