Retard chamber

The Loss Prevention Certification Board (LPCB part of BRE Global) sets the standards needed to ensure that fire and security products and services perform effectively. LPCB’s Loss Prevention Standards (LPS) are applied in fire and security sectors around the world.

LPS 1040 - 2.3, Requirements and testing procedures for the LPCB approval and listing of wet alarm valve sets, published by BRE Global in 2014, defines a retard chamber as: ‘A volumetric device designed to minimize false alarms caused by surges and fluctuation in sprinkler system water supplies.’

The retard time is: ‘This is the time from the first passage of water through the alarm part of the valve (with and without the retard chamber), to the sounding of the alarm device.’

--BRE Group

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