Fire Alarm Commissioning Records: The Yardstick for Every Test That Follows
A new fire industry code shows why commissioning records matter: later tests are judged against them. What the handover pack holds and where to file it.
By Jamie Dawson · Editor
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Updated 05 Oct 2026
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4 min read
When a fire alarm is commissioned, the installer measures how it performs on day one. Every later service visit should be judged against those figures. Lose the commissioning records and the engineer has nothing to compare with, which means more testing, more disruption and less certainty. Keep the commissioning certificate, the as fitted drawings, the cause and effect schedule and the configuration data together, and keep them with the fire safety logbook.
What has happened
On 18 September 2026 the Fire Industry Association announced the 2026 Code of Practice for Aspirating Smoke Detection Systems, the first full rewrite of its guidance on these systems since 2012. Aspirating detectors draw air through a network of small pipes to a sensitive detector, and are common in warehouses, server rooms, cold stores and historic buildings.
Most of the 110 page Code is engineering. But it also sets out, more plainly than most guidance, why the paperwork from the day a system was switched on matters for as long as the system is in use. That principle applies well beyond aspirating systems.
Why the day one figures matter
An aspirating system cannot always be tested by puffing smoke into every sampling hole. The holes may be 12 metres up in a racked warehouse, inside a live server cabinet, or in a room where no smoke is allowed at all. So the Code allows maintenance to check performance a different way: by comparing today's readings with the ones taken at commissioning.
It gives typical limits. Airflow should be within 20% of the commissioning value. The time smoke takes to travel from the furthest hole should be within 15% or 3 seconds of the commissioning figure, whichever is greater. Readings outside those limits suggest a blocked, cracked or disconnected pipe.
That only works if someone kept the numbers. The Code is direct about what happens if they did not: where "the original commissioning time is not known", every sample hole or group of holes "must be tested individually". In a warehouse that means access equipment, a permit and a day of disruption on every visit, until someone re-baselines the system.
The same logic applies to any fire alarm
Ordinary fire alarm systems do not use airflow readings, but the principle holds. BS 5839-1, the code of practice for fire alarms in non domestic buildings, includes model certificates for each stage of a system's life, from design through installation and commissioning to acceptance. Those certificates, and the drawings and schedules that go with them, describe what the system was meant to do and what it was proven to do when it was handed over.
Without them, a service engineer can confirm that detectors respond and sounders sound. What they cannot easily confirm is whether the system still matches its design, whether a zone has been quietly altered, or whether the cause and effect (which doors release, which plant shuts down, which suppression system is triggered) still does what it did on handover day.
What the Code says should be in the handover pack
For aspirating systems the Code says commissioning "records, along with all configuration data, should be submitted as part of the commissioning certificate", together with drawings showing "the pipe layout, hole sizes, sampling point positions and detector locations". Where smoke tests were done, the test positions "should be recorded so that they can be repeated during maintenance". And the frequency and method of maintenance "should be clearly documented and kept with the fire safety logbook".
That last line is worth taking literally. The logbook records what happens week to week. The commissioning pack is what those entries are measured against. They belong in the same place.
Paper or digital?
Either works. A labelled wallet at the back of the fire safety logbook, with the certificates and a copy of the drawings, is perfectly adequate and is still what most buildings have.
The weakness of paper is that it tends to live in an office while the engineer is standing at the panel. More sites now keep a scanned copy that can be reached from the panel itself, for example through a QR code on the panel door, so the person doing the test can pull up the commissioning figures on the spot. If you go that way, keep the paper originals too, and add new versions when the system is altered rather than overwriting the old ones.
Records checklist
- ✓Commissioning certificate, signed and dated, with the installer's details
- ✓As fitted drawings: detector, call point and sounder positions (for aspirating systems, pipe layout, hole sizes and sampling points)
- ✓Cause and effect schedule, and evidence it was tested at handover
- ✓Configuration data, including sensitivity settings and any agreed variations from the standard
- ✓For aspirating systems: commissioning airflow and transport time readings, and the positions of any smoke tests
- ✓The agreed maintenance frequency and method
- ✓A dated record of every later change to the system, with updated drawings
Frequently asked questions
We have no commissioning records. What now?
Ask the original installer first; many keep copies. If that fails, a competent fire alarm contractor can survey the system and establish a new baseline. Record that it is a re-baseline, the date, and who did it.
Is the FIA Code a legal requirement?
No. It is industry guidance. The legal duty under the Fire Safety Order is to maintain fire safety equipment in efficient working order, and codes like this are how engineers show that has been done.
How long should commissioning records be kept?
For the life of the system. They remain the reference point until the system is replaced.