Fire detection compliance for commercial buildings sits under a different standards regime to residential — AS 1670 for system design rather than AS 3786 for self-contained alarms — and requires routine service to AS 1851, integration with the building's fire indicator panel (FIP), and often interface with EWIS, sprinkler monitoring, lift recall, and HVAC shutdown. Get this wrong and the building permit is exposed, the insurer has grounds to refuse cover, and the fire engineer's documented strategy stops working. Millar Electrics designs, installs, and routine-services commercial fire detection systems in coordination with registered fire safety engineers where required.
What an AS 1670 system covers
The system is engineered around the building's fire engineering report and NCC classification: addressable detector placement (smoke, heat, beam, aspirating depending on the application), zone allocation, FIP location and capacity, EWIS speaker layout if required, and interface to sprinkler monitoring and building services shutdown. The design output is a set of FSE-signed drawings against which we install. For most buildings above small-Class-5 we expect an existing FSE design; we coordinate the install against that documentation rather than designing the fire strategy ourselves.
EWIS and integration with other building systems
Above thresholds in NCC Volume 1 Part E2, the building requires an Emergency Warning and Intercommunication System — speakers throughout, WIP (warden intercom point) handsets at strategic locations, broadcasting evacuation tones and verbal instructions. EWIS integrates with the FIP so a confirmed alarm triggers the right zoning broadcast. We also handle the interfaces to sprinkler monitoring (AS 1668), lift fire-mode recall, fire-isolation HVAC dampers, and door release on stair-pressurisation systems.
AS 1851 routine service
Once installed, the system requires routine service to AS 1851: monthly visual checks, six-monthly subsystem tests, annual full-system tests, with results logged in the building's fire safety logbook. We provide service contracts covering the full schedule, with technicians qualified for the tests, replacement detector heads kept in stock, and certificates available for the building's annual essential safety measures (ESM) compliance return.
Upgrades from legacy systems
Older conventional (zone-only, non-addressable) FIPs are difficult to extend, harder to fault-find, and increasingly difficult to find spare parts for. We provide upgrade paths to addressable systems with detector-by-detector reporting — usually delivered in a planned outage, with fire watch in place during the changeover, and reinstated under the same FSE-signed design.