Remote testing: Advancing technology in fire damper installations

Damper insights:

• Periodic testing of fire and smoke dampers is a requirement per NFPA 80: Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives and NFPA 105: Standard for Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives, and it protects assets and lives.
• This article will explore NFPA 80 and 105, review how testing has traditionally been performed and look at how technology can make the process more efficient and less costly.

According to NFPA 80: Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives and NFPA 105: Standard for Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives, periodic testing of actuated fire and smoke dampers is a requirement. Testing ranges from every six months for a dedicated smoke control system, to as long as every six years for a hospital with containment applications. Whether it is twice a year or twice a decade, testing is expensive and difficult.

Without testing, there is no way to know whether a damper will close as expected in the event of a life-or-death emergency. This can be a huge liability for building stakeholders, including the fire protection engineer, and an even bigger risk for unknowing occupants. Beyond legal liability, a fire protection engineer could face several other significant consequences if a fire occurs in a building they designed. These consequences could include licensing and certification issues, as well impacts to their professional reputation, career and personal life.

The truth is that most systems are designed solely with functionality and cost in mind, without taking the necessary steps to ensure that periodic testing can be performed efficiently. But with just a little foresight, it is possible to provide safe and effective systems with a plan to ensure they stay that way.

For decades, testing of actuated life safety dampers has been done one way. A highly trained and well-paid expert was brought on-site. They would spend a day — or even weeks — climbing up and down ladders, venturing into plenum spaces and access panels to conduct the visual testing. The test was simple: cut power to the actuator, and it would spring closed.

Figure 1: Belimo’s FSKN remote inspection module provides a simpler method of testing actuated life safety dampers without costly visual inspections. Courtesy: Belimo Aircontrols (USA) Inc.

The inspector would closely examine the seams of the damper blades, ensuring that the damper fully closed. Then, they would restore power and observe as the damper reopened. Over time, damper manufacturers started to offer features that made it easier to cut power, such as a button or keyed switch, and even indicator lights to show whether the damper was open or closed.

It sounds simple, but the process can be painful. Scheduling the inspector, alerting the building users, moving patients from their hospital floors, coordinating the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system with occupants — it all adds up. Then there is finding and accessing the dampers, not to mention keeping a signed log for the next safety audit. With all these steps, it is easy to understand how testing could be pushed to the back burner, becoming a “nice to have” feature or a problem for another day.

It is an open secret that these critical tests are often skipped. After all, there is very little enforcement. And, if a building does not burn down, no one will ever know. But the liability and risk to building stakeholders remain. All of this can be mitigated through more thoughtful design.

In 2018, NFPA  80 and 105 were expanded to include remote inspection as an acceptable and approved option for periodic testing of fire and smoke dampers. These sections were given additional provisions that outline this testing method. And understandably, they all require that if a remote test fails, the inspector must fall back to a visual inspection.

Since then, the NFPA has reinforced the concept of remote testing with Section 915 (Standard for Remote Inspection and Tests), where it has begun to pose forward-thinking questions such as, “What if you want to use video for inspection?“ and “Can a drone be used?“ It makes sense to advance the industry in this direction.

Remote fire damper testing

In 2023, the industry’s first remote testing module was released, Belimo’s FSKN — an inconspicuous looking metal box, with a simple purpose. The FSKN is a communications device that enables a remote user to send a “cut power” signal to a connected actuator.

However, its functionality extends beyond this — it also serves as a safety test by timing how quickly the actuator springs closed.

The FSKN uses the switch positions to know if the actuator has gone from 100% open to 50% to 0%, and then back again to 100% open. All of this must happen within the parameters of the test cycle, after which it sends a pass or fail message back to the building management system (BMS), or whatever system is used to send BACnet or Modbus communications.

Figure 2: Periodic testing of actuated life safety dampers is not only required by code, but necessary to ensure a safe environment. Courtesy: Belimo Aircontrols (USA) Inc.

Remote testing makes it easy to ensure the life safety of a building. Facility managers can run a simple remote test of a life safety damper with a click of a mouse. Or the BMS could schedule and automatically run the test in the off-hours or on a weekend providing a log of test results to the Monday morning shift. An entire campus, skyscraper or hospital could be tested in a couple of minutes. And if there are failures, an expert can be dispatched to the exact location. Although inaccessible dampers should not exist, if they do, they can now be easily tested.

With all this advancement and potential, it is important to recognize that there is some skepticism around the idea of remote testing. This resistance typically revolves around trusting the technology used for the testing. Many pushing against this change are the inspectors that have been employed for years to visually inspect these dampers and, therefore, are afraid of losing their livelihoods.

It seems shocking that hospitals only must test once every six years. But what if they could run a test every month? What if testing could be performed without breaking containment of ceilings and systems, took only a few minutes and cost virtually nothing? Wouldn’t these systems become safer? Wouldn’t it save lives?

This is why it is so important to plan for the testing during system design. With a bit of forethought that these systems need to be tested and maintained and by making minor adjustments to the specified equipment of a job, we can provide simple and smart systems that keep us all safe.

When specifying a UL 555(S)-rated damper, know that someone will need to find it, access it and test it at regular intervals. With remote life safety testing technology, we can give building owners a modern solution to an old problem.

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