AHJ Nightmares?

Working for a Federal Government agency adds a number of additional internal AHJ inputs into the mix on top of the ones already mentioned such as Fire Marshals and Building Inspectors. Depending on the nature of the project I have had to run specs and requirements by IT security programs who have buy in as well as Information and Operational Security specialist if the project was a SCIF or classified information processing site. Trying to satisfy all levels of security and safety requirements can be quite the juggling act and accounts for some incredibly long timelines and escalated construction cost.

During the construction of two new residential halls, the access control vendor arrived on site only to find that the wiring for the card readers was on the wrong side of the swing of the door. This all had to be changed and rewired to the correct specifications. All network cabling was run inside conduit so we were OK there! The AHJ at this point had not been asked to sign off on the job, but once again, there goes the profit.

It is up to you as the Contractor, Designer,Integrator,Installer to know the Building Codes of the area you are working. Its always cheaper to clarify with the AHJ what they expect. Also if its a big enough job the customer usually has specification on how they want it installed eg. conduit & boxes required, fire stopping etc. Also read the contract before you sign and start any work.

I was working with an Alarm and Security Fog integrator and we installed a Security Fog System in Richmond, B.C. We had checked the AHJ in Vancouver and surrounding burbs - all were fine with the installation of a security fog system, we checked with the fire Marshall in Richmond (the AHJ) and 'no problem.' Two days after the installation, we recieved a call from Richmond By-law officer stating we must remove the Security fog system immediately, or be subject to a fine of some $100.00 per day. This was due to a by-law ordinance prohibiting security fog systems in Richmond.

We have since installed Security fog systems all across Canada, and as yet, Richmond is still the only area that will not allow security fog systems. It was a good lesson for us to check all sources forthe correct AHJ information.

My nightmare experience with AHJ was they would not allow us to wire up any backup batteries for fail-safe maglocks even when we had the lock power supplies wired to fire alarm system to release in case of emergency and had all the necessary hardware for free egress...

We ran into a job that involved a new access control system consisting of Maglocks on the main front entry doors. Per the code requirements we installed the required egress motion sensor, egress pushbutton (marked with "push to exit) with a 30 second pneumatic feature. We connected the pneumatic button in series with the lock power at the door and also connected one side of the DPDT relay in the REX motion in series with the lock power at the door so that the Maglock would unlock without requiring the logic of the access control panel. This configuration also met the requirement that if the REX motion lost power the Maglock would unlock. We used an Altronix AL600ULACM power supply with an ACM8 fire release relay board to allow connection from the existing addressable fire alarm system. The fire alarm contractor provided us with an addressable relay at our access panel and it was configured and tested to change state upon any general fire alarm. This relay was connected to our power supply per the manufacturers instructions and the connection provided proper supervision from the addressable relay to our power supply fire alarm input.

The local AHJ had a problem with the fire alarm systems logic to always function correctly. His concern was that the because the fire alarm relay was addressable, it might not function as intended if the fire alarm panel had logic problems. He wanted a dry contact output directly from the fire panel to be tied in series with the Maglock power source. We discussed the fact that the entire addressable fire alarm system including all addressable inputs (pull stations, smoke detectors, and other addressable devices also relied on the same fire alarm panel logic to be operational as well. He did not see it that way and was stuck on this fire alarm relay issue. We ended up doing it his way.

When it came time to test the system for proper release upon a power failure, he wanted to shut down power to the entire plant at the main service panel to ensure that we were actually simulating a power outage event rather than just removing power from our control equipment. This was a large plant with many employees. This is when the plant director stepped in and made a few phone calls downtown. The end result was that the plant power was not shut down, and he agreed to let us simulate a power outage by removing power from our control equipment to verify the Maglocks did in fact unlock.