Smoke extraction systems play a crucial role in ensuring the safety of buildings. 

In the event of a fire, smoke can rapidly spread, making it difficult for occupants to evacuate and for firefighters to enter the premises. This is where smoke extract systems come into play, as they are designed to remove smoke and heat from buildings, allowing for the safe evacuation of occupants and providing easier access for emergency responders.

In this article, we will delve into the fundamentals of smoke extraction systems, discussing their importance, requirements, components, design considerations, types, installation, maintenance, and the benefits they bring to modern buildings.

As an architect, it is crucial to stay up to date with the latest legal requirements to ensure the safety and well-being of occupants in high-rise residential buildings. One critical aspect of building safety is smoke ventilation, which plays a vital role in fire prevention and evacuation procedures. In this blog, we will outline the current legal requirements for smoke control in residential buildings, including the latest updates in the Building Safety Act.

Both pressurization systems and smoke shafts are commonly used for smoke control in buildings to protect escape routes. But how do you decide what approach to take for your building? The decision is influenced by legislation and standards, building configuration, budget and space requirements - there is no universal “right” choice, but there’s certainly a best choice for each individual building. In this blog, we will give you an overview of the differences between these systems, how they work and other key comparisons that can help you understand what’s best for your project.

To get started on the topic of smoke control dampers (or 'smoke dampers', as they are sometimes called), let’s first explore exactly what they are and why they play an important role in keeping buildings and people safe.

In basic HVAC terminology, a damper is a mechanism that allows air to flow when it is open and limits airflow when it is closed.
A smoke and fire damper is a device that permits the flow of air when it is open, but when it is closed, it not only limits airflow but also blocks the passage of smoke and fire. On activation, whether automatically by a detection system, or physically through the effect of heat on a thermal device, these dampers close to prevent the passage of fire and smoke. They only re-open when manually reset.

Smoke Control Dampers permit the flow of smoke into or through a smoke control system when open, but may also close to prevent fire spread. Therefore, they may open or close at different times depending on the smoke control strategy for the building.
Smoke control dampers are crucial components of fire protection systems, particularly when it comes to preserving a building's fire safety strategy.

They offer direct fire resistance when closed and are tested to maintain their opening area under heat conditions when open. These dampers are invaluable in safeguarding the structural integrity of a building and preventing the occupants from harm in the event of a fire.

In order to install the correct smoke ventilation system in a residential building, it is important to size the vents (also known as AOVs') correctly, otherwise the system will not be compliant.

In residential buildings, the most common approaches to smoke control are natural ventilation and/or mechanical smoke ventilation systems. With natural ventilation, automatic opening vents installed on either the side or roof of the building will open when triggered to allow smoke to escape from the building - they act very much in the same way as opening a regular window would. With mechanical ventilation systems, powered vents actively pull smoke out of the area they are installed to protect in the event of a fire.

There are different approaches to sizing vents for each of these solutions. In this blog, we will cover the guidance from Approved Document B and also provide some advice from our designers.

How do Pressurization systems work?

To get started on this blog, let's first look at how pressurization systems (or pressure differential systems) work to remove smoke from a building.

Smoke control systems are an invaluable and crucial part of a building’s fire safety systems that work in conjunction with a range of other components to keep buildings and people safe in the event of a fire.

If you read our blogs regularly, you will know that we recently asked our design team to help us answer some of our customers’ most frequently asked questions on smoke control. In Part 1, we covered four topics: car park ventilation, natural vs. mechanical ventilation, smoke dampers and environmental ventilation. If you missed that instalment, read it here.

In Part 2, we will be answering questions on CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), the components of a smoke control system, when you need smoke control in a building and pressurization systems.

Every day, our technical consultants and designers deal with a wide range of projects and challenges that require specific knowledge and expertise in smoke control design and installation.

To help us share some of this knowledge with you, we asked them to compile a set of questions and answers for the most frequently queried topics from customers - we ended up with eight subjects:

Car Park Ventilation

Natural vs. Mechanical Ventilation

Smoke Control & Fire Dampers

Environmental Ventilation

CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics)

The Components of a Smoke Control System

When Do You Need Smoke Control in a Building?

Pressurization Systems

In part 1 of this blog, we will cover Car Park Ventilation, Natural vs. Mechanical Ventilation, Smoke Dampers and Environmental Ventilation. To get an email notification when Part 2 is released, subscribe to our blog.

Electric cars are becoming more prevalent and car parks are facing a new risk with the growing numbers of cars being charged in them. This may lead to a number of fires in their lithium-ion batteries, that will pose a challenge to firefighters and to those responsible for safety in the car parks.

When a fire breaks out, the consequences can be devastating. In warehouses or other large, single-storey buildings such as factories, not only are lives put at risk, but large quantities of stock can be destroyed as well. Depending on the damage caused, days or months of production time can be lost – a challenge that most companies might find it difficult to recover from.

In this blog, we aim to give you some more information about how a smoke control and smoke clearance system can help to reduce damage to buildings and stock, whilst keeping occupants safe.

Smoke control systems are vital to keeping buildings and occupants safe. However, unfortunately there are also occasionally times when things can go wrong and the systems fail. In this blog, we aim to cover some of the most common issues and how they can affect the overall performance of smoke shaft systems.

Act responsibly or face hefty financial and legal consequences. This is the message the government is sending to manufacturers, installers and suppliers of fire safety equipment with its latest amendments to The Building Safety Bill.

In February, the government tabled 38 pages of amendments to The Building Safety Bill that would impose extremely stringent penalties on manufacturers, installers and others across the industry who do not comply with the proper standards and regulations. Although the main driver for these changes is cladding issues, systems and products like smoke control, sprinklers and fire alarms are also included.

In this blog, we aim to provide guidance on UK legislation with particular emphasis on the regulations in England that form the basis for smoke control design. Since local government was devolved, each nation state has produced its own guidance framework for construction. In England this is defined by the Building Regulations 2010 and the Approved Documents – specifically Approved Document B for Fire Safety. In Wales it is similar, except the Approved Documents are specific to Wales. In Scotland, the requirements are set out in the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the supporting guidance can be found in the Building Standards Technical Handbooks – Section 2 for Fire Safety. Finally, for Northern Ireland, it would be the Building Regulations (NI) 2012 supported by the Technical Booklets – E, for fire safety.

Both pressurization systems and smoke shafts are commonly used for smoke control in buildings to protect escape routes. But how do you decide what approach to take for your building? The decision is influenced by legislation and standards, building configuration, budget and space requirements - there is no universal “right” choice, but there’s certainly a best choice for each individual building. In this blog, we will give you an overview of the differences between these systems, how they work and other key comparisons that can help you understand what’s best for your project.