I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems that the month of August is typically when fire alarm tests and upgrades seem to occur more. It isn’t just the schools and colleges either; I have seen stores, libraries and offices also getting their fire alarms inspected or any upgrades performed in August as well. I wonder if that also has to tie into the back-to-school season?
What on earth would an office or other building have to do with “back to school” season?
It’s not “back to school” that gets the alarm companies out to schools to do the work.
The school is wrapping up it’s messes from any construction or “spring cleaning” and it’s a great time for an annual inspection.
I never found a link between vacations and testing. I have done plenty of schools where we just hold off on signals until the end of the school day. The school typically schedules it when it works for them.
Hmm, I do remember the schools also have their alarms checked on during the February vacation as well, but this is for semi-annual inspections. Sometimes they may come in after school to do some kind of repairs. This happened once at the local middle school, back when their Simplex 4100U panel was dying.
Usually schools/colleges/etc in my City get their systems checked at the beginning of July, just after the school year ends. Every other building in my city is basically at random for testing the alarm systems.
The schools that I went to usually had their alarms tested sometime over summer vacation. My elementary school did it at the end of June, my middle school did it the beginning of July and my high school did it in the middle of June. Not sure when the CCRI campuses do their tests though.
The alarms at my school are usually inspected the second semester. I am not aware of any tests conducted on them, although they obviously might be conducted after school hours.
I asked the janitor at where I worked when the alarms will be tested again and he said not for a few more months. Looks like I missed my chance to hear the 4051s this go around.