BS 8519:2010 Selection and installation of fire-resistant power and control cable systems for life safety and fire-fighting applications. Code of practice
High-rise and complex buildings have developed in terms of increased size, height and complexity of active fire protection. This has allowed fire engineered solutions to be developed. These solutions require a high level of performance from the components of the building services, including the electrical supplies.
BS 8519 gives guidance and recommendations on the selection and installation of power and control cable systems. It covers systems that are required to maintain their circuit integrity for life safety and fire-fighting applications. It also gives specific recommendations for electrical system design for such applications, and recommended limits for survival times.
BS 8519 identifies those electrical loads defined as life safety and fire-fighting loads. It lists the factors to be considered by the engineer when selecting and specifying the performance requirements of the electrical distribution system needed to maintain integrity under defined fire conditions for a specified period, referred to as the fire survival time.
It makes reference to the recommendations identified in BS 9999, with regard to the design and installation of the electrical distribution systems for life safety and fire-fighting equipment.
It also makes reference to three categories of circuits required to maintain their circuit integrity under defined fire conditions for varying fire survival times of 30 min, 60 min and 120 min. Appropriate cable tests are identified for each category derived from applicable British Standards that assess cable performance under conditions of fire as might be expected in an actual fire incident.
This standard aims to ensure that the level of circuit integrity is not compromised by other components of the whole electrical distribution system, including cable glands, terminations, joints and cable support systems.
It covers:
- The source of supply
- The distribution voltage [high voltage (HV) or low voltage (LV)]
- The appropriate location of the main intake enclosures, HV switchrooms, LV switchrooms, transformer rooms, generator rooms, risers, fire life safety plant rooms and fire-fighting/evacuation lift motor rooms/shafts.
It also identifies the need for dual redundant electrical supplies run via diverse cable routes, installed within separate fire compartments, and the need to incorporate automatic changeover devices, located within the same fire compartment as the life safety and fire-fighting equipment.
Who should use BS 8519?
- Designers
- Contractors
- Fire engineers
- Regulators and enforcers including building control bodies
- Fire authorities
- Health and safety inspectors.
What changes have been made to the standard from the previous version?
BS 8519:2010 replaces BS 7346-6:2005, which is now withdrawn.
The main changes to this standard include:
- Change of identifier
- Change of scope
- Change from a specification to a code of practice
- Removal of Annex B (now published separately as BS 8491)
- Expansion of content to include all life safety/fire-fighting systems (not only smoke venting and fire-fighting cores as in the previous edition)
- Inclusion of new and revised technical guidance relating to the selection and installation of fire-resistant cables and systems for life safety and fire-fighting applications.
Contents of BS 8519:
Foreword
Introduction
1 Scope
2 Normative references
3 Terms and definitions
4 General
5 Fire survival times
6 Power supplies
7 Dual circuits/diverse routes
8 Fire protective enclosures for equipment
9 Automatic changeover devices
10 Motor control panels
11 Cable selection
12 Fire protective enclosures for cables
13 Effects of fire temperature on cable size
14 Use of circuit protective conductors (CPCs)
15 Cable installation practice
16 Cable support systems
17 Inverters
18 Multi-zoned smoke ventilation systems
19 Junction boxes
20 Areas of special fire risk
Annexes
List of figures
List of tables