Kent Fire & Rescue has its headquarters in Maidstone, group offices at Canterbury, Folkestone, Sevenoaks, Maidstone and Rochester and 58 fire stations around the county.
WS Parsons has been this vital service provider’s preferred provider of electrical products and services for 15 years and installs products from NVC Lighting across all its sites.
Terry Fullager from WS Parsons says: “We work closely with all of our clients to ensure we meet their specific electrical needs. In the case of Kent Fire & Rescue we have developed a system that means our team responds in appropriate timescales depending on the issue that needs addressing and the operational needs of the particular site.”
Since 2018 WS Parsons has been working through a major project to upgrade Kent Fire & Rescue’s lighting to meet various requirements in their offices, appliance bays and across their sites. These included reducing costs by installing lighting that is more energy efficient and also more reliable to cut maintenance expenditure. They used a variety of NVC’s products including the Yale IK10, IP40 rated robust surface mount LED luminaire and the Sterling IP44, TP(a) rated, edge lit LED recessed modular panel the Greenland IK10, IP65 rated, non-corrosive and chemical resistant, industrial LED luminaire and the Portland IP54 rated decorative LED circular bulkhead.
We were able to meet the of requirement of the TP(a) specification of Part B of the Building Regulations with our Sterling LED panel, which provides the optimum safety for thermo plastics where in the event of exposure to fire it self-extinguishes in less than 5 secs.
A further requirement was to update emergency lighting across all of its sites to meet the latest regulations. NVC is providing ongoing surveying services to ensure that the lighting supplied meets all the requirements and complies with BS 5266 standards.
A range of NVC products was installed including the Nebraska, an IP65 rated, LED emergency bulkhead which is supplied with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO₄) batteries. This battery technology brings several benefits in comparison with Nickel Cadmium. For example, they cost less to run and maintain, offer improved performance, and use non-toxic, recyclable materials.
Terry continues: “For almost ten years, NVC has been our preferred lighting supplier and most of the products we have installed for Kent Fire & Rescue are from NVC. We know we can rely on the high-quality, they are easy to install and competitively priced. The support we receive is excellent and NVC accompanies us on site surveys and provides product advice including design recommendations and lighting calculations.”