The fire alarm system should not only be capable of serving the needs of the equipment and devices required for the present building, but also future expansion of the system. Not surprisingly, the cost of expanding an existing system is greater than the cost to provide spare capacity during the initial installation. A change in occupancy can change the location, quantity and configuration of fire alarm devices and equipment. Changes in the configuration of tenant spaces may affect device quantities and locations, especially for notification appliances. The system should be designed to change with these modifications.
Serviceability pertains to the ease with which system issues are resolved.
In many ways, this reflects on the fire alarm equipment manufacturer. Manufacturers approach service to their systems differently. A few maintain their systems as proprietary systems and, as such, exclusively service their own systems. Other manufacturers' equipment may be serviced by several service providers. The fire alarm designer should research the service approaches and records of the local service providers and factor this into the overall system design.