Fire, life safety in colleges, universities

The Consulting-Specifying Engineer 2018 Fire & Life Safety Study indicated that 57% of engineers specify, design, or select products for college/university buildings-and 90% of these engineers are responsible for determining the requirements/writing specifications for these projects. Below are five fire and life safety findings as they relate to college/university projects:

1. Revenue: The average firm earns $2.41 million annually from fire and life safety systems specified into new and existing college/university buildings, with 24% bringing in more than $3 million each year from these projects.
2. Recent changes: The top changes recently observed in fire and life safety systems specified for college/university buildings relate to codes and standards (54%) and building information modeling (51%).
3. Specifications: Engineers are most frequently issuing performance fire and life safety systems specifications (77%) for college/university projects, followed by prescriptive specifications (73%).
4. Future concerns: Inadequate budgets (75%) and the subjective interpretation of regulations (75%) top the list of concerns had by engineers when looking to the future of life and life safety systems in college/university projects.
5. Comparing systems: Overall quality is most important when selecting a fire and life safety system for a college/university building; engineers also look at reputations of manufacturers, their previous experiences with manufacturers, warranties, and service support offerings.

View additional research from Consulting-Specifying Engineer: www.csemag.com/research

Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.