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

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