Fire Alarm and ELV Systems Design: NFPA 72 and BS 5839

It is for electrical and MEP engineers, technicians and draughtsmen at consultants, contractors and facility teams who are moving into fire alarm and ELV work, and for anyone who has to check or maintain a fire alarm design. No fire alarm experience is needed; Ohm's law and a spreadsheet are enough to start.

Yes. Every module, the notes, the worked problems, the project and the final assessment are free, and the software it uses is free. The certificate is optional.

NFPA 72 (2025 edition) and BS 5839-1:2025 side by side, with the EN 54 product standards, NEC Article 760 for wiring, EN 62676-4 for CCTV and the ISO/IEC 11801 and ANSI/TIA-568 cabling families. The notes explain the rules in their own words and never reproduce the standards; NFPA offers free read-only access to NFPA 72 online after registration.

It teaches the two families most countries build on and how to read whichever one your project adopts. The United States and many other countries adopt NFPA 72 through their building codes; the UK and many Commonwealth countries use BS 5839-1; Europe uses EN 54 products with national rules. In India, IS 2189 and Part 4 of the National Building Code apply, and in the Gulf each civil defence authority publishes its own code and approves contractors and products. Local regulations and the authority always govern.

You will be able to prepare a design pack that a senior engineer can review: layouts, schedules, calculations and a cause and effect matrix. Fire alarm systems are life safety systems, so a real design must be done or checked by a competent person under local regulations, and in many places only an approved or licensed designer or contractor may submit it.

A spreadsheet such as LibreOffice Calc for the calculations, and LibreCAD, AutoCAD or squared paper for the layouts. Nothing else needs to be installed.

About 17 hours of video, notes and practice at your own pace, of which about 11 hours is video. The optional office building project takes about 16 hours more.

An EDWartens certificate of completion, issued when you finish the modules and pass the 15-question final at 60 percent, with a number anyone can verify on our site. The course covers much of the knowledge that fire alarm exams such as NICET Fire Alarm Systems test, but it is not a NICET, NFPA or BSI certification or an authority approval, and none of them is affiliated with EDWartens.

Yes. Learning costs ₹0 in India: every module, the written notes, the practice tasks and the final assessment, with no card and no trial period. The only paid item is the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, ₹459 including GST for this beginner course, paid in rupees through Razorpay, and only if you want it after passing the final assessment.