The Monument Building in the City of London is using the Cygnus wireless alarm system from Bull Products during construction works.
Bull Products explains that, standing adjacent to The Monument, which marks the origin of the Great Fire of London, the new project being built by construction group Skanska, will comprise 94,000sqft, offering 88,000sqft of office accommodation with 4,000sqft of retail space. The Monument Building is designed to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and is scheduled for completion in Spring 2016.
According to Bull Products, Skanska has been using its system since construction started last year, highlighting that the Cygnus alarm system can link as many as 480 alarm and detector units in different zones on a construction site, and individual units can be fire alarm call points, first aid alerts, combined call points and first aid alerts, smoke detectors or heat detectors.
Claire McCormack, health and safety manager at Skanska says: “We found Cygnus to be a very good system, providing not just alarms but first aid points as well. If an operator, say on level seven, hits the first aid button then we know exactly where to send help. Also, if for instance a crane driver is unwell, then that person too can hit an emergency button to raise the alarm.
“As the whole system is reusable on future construction projects, it is a very sound investment and financially much better than hiring. Also by purchasing the Cygnus system, Bull Products hold the units in stock on our behalf for us to call off when we require, and they also maintain the system for us”.
Bull Products say that the system is intended purely for use on construction sites and has been specifically designed for use in dense concrete and steel structured buildings and areas where there are many other radio frequencies in operation. With this in mind, the firm say particular attention has been given to achieving an impressive connection range – where there are multiple sites within range of each other, the Cygnus system has been designed to operate on different site addresses in order to keep each system separate and free from interference, they say.
The company also highlight a major feature of the Cygnus system as the optional control panel which provides an event log function which records any events such as an alarm activation, low battery warning, and signal faults, all of which can be viewed if necessary in the history folder held on the panel. The system also has the ability to test all units and has an evacuate function which will act as a call point to the rest of the alarm units, they add.
Bull Products also point out that each unit in the system can provide the panel with information at regular intervals, which confirms the unit is still present and what the battery status of each device is. A PIR option is now also available on any of the modules, they add, which can detect an intruder and alert off-site personnel for added safety protection.
