Client Overview

• Client Name: Cooke and Arkwright
• Location: Cardiff, Wales

We have been working with Cooke and Arkwright since 2019 across their various buildings in Wales. We took over multiple systems in the same year at Castle Court, on Westgate Street in Cardiff. This included fire alarm, CCTV systems, intercom systems, intruder alarm, and emergency lighting.

Project Overview

• The H3 Group was tasked with upgrading the fire alarm system within Castle Court. This is a historical building over 100 years old located near the Principality Stadium. The site is primarily used for residential purposes and is split into 7 different blocks with a total of 149 flats.

Challenges

1. Due to the vast size of the building, with 149 different flats over 7 blocks, ensuring there was sufficient signal between the fire alarm panel and the detectors was a major challenge.
2. As an active residential space, the work had to be undertaken in a way that did not impede the residents on a daily basis.
3. Ensuring the sound levels on all components of the system were in line with the industry standard of 75dB to alert all occupants in the event of an emergency.

Solution

• Installation of an Advanced MX5 Hybrid Fire Alarm Panel in each of the 7 blocks, in addition to the basement and the control room.
• Installation of over 250 Hochiki wireless and wired smoke and heat detectors. This was made possible by the hybrid fire alarm systems.
• Installation of signal expanders to ensure that all the wireless smoke and heat detectors on all 4 floors of each block were connected to the fire alarm system.
• British Standards dictate that every sounder needs to be at 75dB. To achieve this in all the flats, we installed Hochiki Wall Sounders Beacons.

The project was spearheaded by fire and security engineer Josh Scott and was completed ahead of schedule. It highlighted one of our major projects this year and we are proud of having completed this project without any significant hitches.