Agricultural Facility in Germany

[Fireguy30]

Hello everyone,

I've got a 2 storey agricultural facility in Germany requiring a sprinkler system and I was wondering what the major differences in building standards are, or if I can even design to NFPA standards? We've done facilities like this in the past, nothing complicated mostly OH 2 and EH for oil extraction. But they were all in Canada. My office is located in Toronto and primarily M&E design, being the only fire protection guy in the place any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[stookeyfpe]

A cursory overview of the EU standards for automatic sprinkler systems starts at slide 30:

https://www.fgsikring.no/siteassets...sprinklerkonferansen-2015/02-alan-brinson.pdf

 

[UFT12]

What is the insurance carrier of the job saying about it? Most installations in Germany are approved/certified under the jurisdiction of VdS which is the equivalent of FM Global in the US. Many other insurance companies adhere to them in a similar fashion as in the US with FM. They have a large set of standards similar to NFPA or FM which can be found here. If this is not the case then typically the EN standards apply or what ever else says the insurance carrier.

For sprinkler systems for example, design and installation requirements throughout the EU are found in EN 12845 which can be considered equivalent to NFPA 13. If VdS comes into play, VdS CEA 4001 is the respective standard which can be considered equivalent to the FM series 2xx and some of the 3xx. I need to note however that these two standards are practically identical. An other, rather sad, note is that contrary to FM, VdS standards are not for free.