Big news in the Fire Protection PE Exam space - the Fire Protection PE Exam, which is offered once a year, is moving from October up to April. It will still only be offered once a year.
The Fire Protection exam has been held on a single date in October for at least the last decade (but likely much longer). This shift to move the exam away from October is rumored to alleviate the lack of available seats at the testing centers, as space has been harder to accommodate now that so many PE Exams have moved to the online version. This is somewhat of a surprising and short notice for those planning to take the PE Exam in 2024 as the study timeline moves up significantly. NCEES hasn't published the new date on the Fire Protection PE Exam website (yet), but this memo from NCEES from May 2023 documents the change: https://www.ncbels.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Spring-2024-Exam-Changes-Member-Board-Memo.pdf To accommodate the new date, the SFPE PE Course is changing dates to the spring and we'll be updating the PE Prep Guide for availability following this year's exam as well. If you know of someone interested in taking the Fire Protection PE Exam - let them know. Many state boards require applications to be submitted well in advance of the exam date - and this change will certainly affect that application timeline. To contact NCEES with questions or concerns, they can be reached here: ncees.org/about/contact/ For those studying for the PE Exam this year - first - hang in there! You may be in the thick of studying, or, if like just about everyone, studying but not feeling like it is enough. Hang in there and keep going! NCEES UPDATES REFERENCE HANDBOOK TO VERSION 1.3 In case you missed it, NCEES recently updated the Fire Protection PE Reference Handbook to Version 1.3. If you're taking the exam this year, you can access it by logging into NCEES here: account.ncees.org/reference-handbooks/ This was news to a few people I spoke with who are studying for the exam, so we looked for changes between the 1.2 and 1.3 editions and published them in a basic table below (click the image to download). This help syncs the latest PE Prep Guide (7th Edition, 2023) with these most recent changes: VERY LIMITED 7TH EDITION PE PREP GUIDES LEFT As of this writing, we have less than 12 copies of the PE Prep Guide (7th Edition) available, with only a handful of remaining 2021 editions as well. This guide has continued to sell well again this year - surpassing prior editions. If you've pushed off ordering the PE Prep Guide - don't wait any longer - these will go fast and will likely sell out prior to the exam in October. Are you going to AFSA next week? Be on the lookout for a nerdy looking guy with a MeyerFire logo on the arm, because we'll be at AFSA42 next week. If you're looking for a booth - we are very nearly at that stage! We (MeyerFire) will have our first official full-fledged booth at the SFPE Annual Conference & Expo in Bethesda, Maryland in October.
Look for us and some show-and-tell on MeyerFire University while there. For those that might have missed our post a couple weeks ago - we have an all-new app that's included for free for MeyerFire University users: The New website: www.meyerfireuniversity.com The New iOS App: MeyerFire on App Store The New Android App: MeyerFire on Google Play I'm happy to announce that our app, as of this writing, now has our entire Toolkit included in the app! Just close the app (if you still have it open), re-open and select the third icon at the bottom of the screen. We're getting a lot of great feedback about what we've created thus far - and honestly we're thrilled about it. The term "app" does nothing. What we can learn and use it for? That's where our impact lies. If you haven't read about all of our very recent updates - you can do so here: www.meyerfire.com/blog/major-update-to-meyerfire-university Thanks for reading! WHAT'S NEXT FOR MEYERFIRE In 2020, I asked many people about what's next. The question was - what do you need to be successful? What can I create to help that happen? I thought the answer was going to be cheatsheets (who doesn't love cheatsheets?). Or software tools. Or forum updates. It wasn't any of those things. THE FRUSTRATION What I kept hearing, over and over, from fire marshals, from contractors, and from engineers - was how much everyone was struggling to train their inexperienced staff. Covid changed a lot of things about the workforce. What we used to rely on for training where the new person gets the cube next to the senior-level person - those days are mostly gone. We don't 'overhear' conversations anymore. We don't pull people into the conference room to get a learning opportunity. The workforce now has different challenges than it did just four years ago. Remote work. A huge loss of experienced staff. A younger-generation coming in with higher expectations of being trained and supported. We know it's different. It's obvious. THE IDEAS So around here - we listened. It's really difficult to get new staff off-the-ground. We hire extra hands because we're busy, but because we're busy we can't dedicate experienced staff to train them up. It's "all-hands-on-deck." And, honestly, conventional training is difficult. It can be expensive. Untimely. Difficult to access. Maybe boring. Lacks daily learning. Lacks the extra resources. Isn't remote-work friendly. Maybe it's one or some or all of those things. So after hearing and talking around, we build the MeyerFire University platform out of that frustration. There has got to be a 2023 answer to the problem that honestly we've struggled with for a long time now. How do we create the resources right at the fingertips for those who need it? How do we create relevant content that actually helps make a difference? We structured the university content around being accessible, being visual, and hopefully engaging. We added workshops and exercises and simulations and puzzles to help develop skill. We're building and growing it all-the-time, and will be for years to come. There's a lot that we want to cover. We have a long way to go. THE BIG CHANGE We continued to listen. "Can we get individual tracking? Individual logins? Can we get this on mobile? Can you make it so we can just hit "continue watching" just like Netflix? Can we download courses and watch them on a plane? Can we get an app?" I'm extremely excited to share a major change in the experience. We now have all of that. 100%. We've worked our tails off to make this happen, and it's now live; today. We want this to be an uncompromised best-possible-way to help your team do great things in the fire protection industry. This is a big step in that direction. For those on MeyerFire University - here are three new links (all free - no extra cost): The New website: www.meyerfireuniversity.com The New iOS App: MeyerFire on App Store The New Android App: MeyerFire on Google Play Access the content anywhere using the new login - no additional cost for the app or new site. We're extremely excited about what this will allow us to create going forward, and my hope is that it will make a positive difference in helping you do great work. Here's some clips - full disclaimer: fake people, real app: (if you don't see images below, click here) If you're a MeyerFire University user, download now for free with the links above.
If you'd like to get live pricing for MeyerFire University, or see what courses we have today, visit: www.meyerfireuniversity.com. We could not be more excited to bring this to life. Thanks for reading and for being a part of the community here! - Joe
Are you going to be in Austin this week for the 2023 North American Sprinkler Expo & NFSA Annual Seminar? If so - check us out! Joe is speaking on Wednesday, May 3rd at 1:00 pm in the Lonestar Room A (sidenote: what could sound more Texas?) on "Design Efficiently: Lessons from a 2-Year Self-Study on Time Management in Fire Sprinkler Design". It'll be a one-hour talk on how to rethink time-management specifically within the fire protection industry. I'll share ways to get your time back and be more effective in your role today. If that sounds grandiose - well it is - except that we have the data to back it up: If you're around - come check it out!
That's Wednesday May 3 at the NFSA North American Expo & Annual Seminar. Have a great rest of your week! - Joe Hard to believe we've made it to that time of year again. Yes, baseball season. But also - the dreaded PE Exam Prep summer. It's fast approaching. We are carrying on our tradition of PE Exam Prep around here, with the hardcover 380+ page PE Prep Guide and our 20-week online PE Prep Series. If you're in the business of setting yourself up with as much content you can to pass the exam - you can get 25% off the online Prep Series by using coupon code BUNDLE when you checkout with both. THE NEW 7TH EDITION OF THE PE PREP GUIDE Our goal with all of our prep content is that it's the best possible resource to help you pass the Fire Protection PE Exam. We need more FPEs in the world, and we're serious about helping you make that happen. With that in mind, we've worked to incorporate a lot of feedback from users the past couple years to update the PE Prep Guide so that it's as realistic to the exam as possible. The 7th Edition includes question styles that better mirror today's PE exam questions, added feedback and advice for passing the exam, and updated all of our references to match the current exam. Now if you have the 2021 Edition, do you need to buy a new one? Nah - the 2021 Edition is more than capable of providing a lot of help in preparing for the exam - just know that the references (NCEES and required references) have since been changed and that the question styling has been updated. The 7th Edition is in-stock and shipping now. WANT MORE? We've partnering with Chris Campbell at the Building Code Blog once again where he provides explanations and worked-problems as part of the PE Roadmap Video Series over at the Building Code Blog website. If you're looking for a more personalized, 24/7 access to lots and lots of worked problems and the explanations behind them, Chris is the guy. The feedback has been very positive. HOW DOES IT COMPARE? The number one question we've been asked and wondered ourselves is how the prep content compares to the actual exam? What data is there to support how well those who use the prep material do on the actual exam? We spent a lot of time with this last fall and studied results from over a hundred users to compare how people performed on the actual exam versus our online PE Prep Series. If you're in the business of passing the exam this year - check out what the results were (click for the full detail): For all the feedback we have - as of this writing - many more people have scored better on the actual exam than the PE Prep Series. I'd invite you to read through the article for the full data breakout.
Cheers to a successful prep season! Any questions - let me know at [email protected]. Protection of windows within a rated assembly is a surprisingly complex and perhaps often misinterpreted topic within the construction industry. Windows create openings in walls, and when the wall is part of a fire-resistance-rated assembly, the windows could compromise the integrity of that assembly. Back in 2019 I wrote an article on this topic which led to a cheatsheet on the three pathways for making a window (or glazing in general) work when it is part of a fire-resistance-rated wall assembly. CHANGES IN THIS SPACE Well, a lot has changed since then. The testing criteria hasn't necessarily changed, but we now have four-times the options for available sprinklers on the market, even just since 2019. The ever-evolving latest editions of NFPA 13, specifically the 2022 Edition, has continued to refine how protection of windows needs to be addressed. AN UPDATED PDF REFERENCE Below is an updated PDF cheatsheet that introduces the changes that have happened just in the last few years. I've now clarified some of the questioning, so it's less vague, but I've also included links to the now-four ICC ESR reports and all the models provided by manufacturers. Take a look and let me know what you think in the comments here below. Thanks for reading!
USE GOOGLE FOR FLOW TESTS & SITE PLANS I sometimes (maybe often) have to learn things the hard way. This tip today comes from the “Lessons Learned” file, where it took me two bashings over the head before I had my ‘aha’ moment. Forgive me if this is obvious and you've been doing this for years. Again, I have to learn things the hard way sometimes. So what is it? What are we talking about? Clearly identifying the location of the water supply. And the ‘aha’ answer – well it’s really simple and can be really helpful. On many projects we use a flow test to get an idea of the available water supply. We use the available water supply curve to calculate how much pressure and how much flow we have available that can serve our suppression system (sprinkler, standpipe, etc). Flow tests carry a whole lot of engineering nuance. A flow test is simply an instantaneous “point in time”. It doesn’t account for demand variations like the time of day, day of the week, or seasonal demand like the lawn irrigation system next door. We’ll save that conversation for another day. One other key factor that a flow test carries is that it is highly dependent on the location from where the test was run. DOES THE LOCATION OF A FLOW TEST MATTER? If we have a large, looped supply, then the location horizontally may not play much of a difference. Say we have an Ordinary Hazard Group 2 sprinkler system and our main outside is a 12-inch looped main. The exact point which we tested isn’t going to affect our system all that much, because we wouldn’t get a lot of pressure loss in a 12-inch looped main when we’re only flowing 550 – 750 gpm. What if we’re not looped? What if it’s a dead-end 6-inch main instead of a looped 12-inch? Well, now our horizontal location could be critical. If our flow test is taken immediately adjacent to our building, then we have a high degree of confidence of what the water supply is doing right where we’re going to tap it. But, if our flow test was actually taken 1,500 ft upstream and we have a dead-end 6-inch supply, then we need to calculate the loss through that entire dead-end supply. That could be a lot of pressure loss! For example, for a 750 gpm sprinkler system, running friction loss for 1,500 ft of 6-inch pipe would lose 16.3 psi. That would have a major impact on most system designs. So, suffice to say, it can be important to document exactly where a flow test was taken horizontally. It also matters, however, in the other plane. DOES THE ELEVATION OF A FLOW TEST MATTER? There’s a chance, depending upon the project, that the horizontal location of a flow test may not play much of a factor in the system design. But the elevation of a flow test? That will always play a factor. If our static/residual hydrant (gauge hydrant in the diagram) is actually 30-ft lower in elevation than our project site, that has major implications. Let’s take a quick example. We look at results from a flow test showing a static pressure of 60 psi with a residual pressure of 50 psi at 1,200 gpm. If that test was taken at the same elevation as our project (a big large flat open field, for example), then we would expect a pressure gauge at the riser to be somewhere around 58-60 psi when nothing is flowing. The pressure gauge and the original gauge hydrant are very close in elevation. However, what if that test (those readings) was actually taken down the hill, at an elevation that was actually 30-ft lower than our project site? We would have a lot less available pressure. As we go deeper in a system, pressure increases. As we rise up within a system, pressure decreases. So a riser that is approximately 30-ft above the gauge hydrant would have an expected pressure of around 47 psi (60 psi – 30-ft x 0.433 psi/ft). That might not sound like much, but in some projects without a fire pump where we are already tight on the hydraulic calculations, this can be a major issue. AN EASY SOLUTION FOR THIS I’ve had two major project issues related to bad documentation of exactly where the flow test was taken. Most projects I see have a simple description for where a test was taken. It’s something like “at the corner of McKinley & Brower Streets” or “1000-ft east on Highway D from the flow hydrant”. Sometimes it’s a description like “on Highway T”. Having an intersection will generally help us narrow down which hydrant was actually used in the test. Usually. Having a description on the road doesn’t help us narrow down much, unless there’s only one hydrant within a half mile radius. What is very, very helpful for narrowing down which hydrant was used? GPS coordinates. USING GOOGLE MAPS Within google maps, it’s extremely easy to precisely locate any point on earth. You don’t even have to go into Google Earth, like we did in an article to grab elevation here. To grab any GPS coordinate on Google Maps, just right click and you’re presented at the top with the coordinates. Click on those coordinates to “copy” the coordinates where you can then paste them, as text, anywhere else. Grabbing coordinates off Google Maps is as easy as right-clicking, then selecting the coordinates. Now, you can paste them into your flow test report, paste them onto your site plan, your hydraulic calculation report, or anywhere else. You only really need to go four decimal places for the coordinates – anything more and you’re talking about less than an inch – which of course is far too precise for what we need here. Coordinates can then be pasted into anywhere - flow test reports, plans, hydraulic calculations. Anywhere you need. If later on, someone needs to verify a hydrant elevation, they can just copy and paste these same coordinates back into Google Earth (to get an elevation), or paste these right back into Google to get the location in Google Maps. Later, anyone with those coordinates can paste them into Google or Google Earth (here), and find the location and the elevation at which those coordinates were taken. In Google Earth, the bottom-right corner shows the elevation. Using GPS coordinates for flow tests is extremely easy to do. What’s most important, though, is that by providing the coordinates for where the test was taken, you’re taking out so much ambiguity. Construction documents are only created for communication. If they don’t clearly communicate, then they’re not serving their purpose. I’ve only recently reached this ‘aha’ moment, but using the coordinates has already helped on recent projects. What about those two major project issues? What was up with those? One was related to a very poor description for where a flow test was taken (a flow test that I received from the city and failed to document well). The other was a flow test that had been taken a good 1,000 ft upstream on a 6-inch dead-end main. In either of these cases, had I correctly documented the exact location of the test, or had I received the exact location of the second test – we would have had no issues at all, because we could have accounted for these differences during the design of the project. Hope this tip helps you avoid some headaches in the future, and that you have a great rest of your week! - Joe |
ALL-ACCESSSUBSCRIBEGet Free Articles via Email:
+ Get calculators, tools, resources and articles
+ Get our PDF Flowchart for Canopy & Overhang Requirements instantly + No spam
+ Unsubscribe anytime AUTHORJoe Meyer, PE, is a Fire Protection Engineer out of St. Louis, Missouri who writes & develops resources for Fire Protection Professionals. See bio here: About FILTERS
All
ARCHIVES
July 2024
|