LPC Rules
LPC Rules for automatic sprinkler installations
The LPC Rules are BS EN 12845 plus a set of Technical Bulletins published by the Fire Protection Association. They are the version of the sprinkler standard UK insurers actually work to, and where a Technical Bulletin adds a requirement, that requirement is what your policy expects.
LPC Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations, incorporating BS EN 12845 Published by Fire Protection Association (FPA)
An insurer or a broker who has specified "LPC Rules" rather than BS EN 12845, and a system that was only ever designed to the base standard.
What LPC Rules actually requires
Most people meet the LPC Rules through their insurer rather than through a designer. They matter because they are not a separate standard competing with BS EN 12845: they contain it, and then add to it. A system can meet BS EN 12845 and still not meet what the policy asked for.
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BS EN 12845 with Technical Bulletins on top
The document incorporates the European standard in full and then adds numbered Technical Bulletins covering things like pump installations, the categorisation of goods in storage, and pipework and fittings. The TBs are where the UK and insurer-specific requirements live.
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This is the insurer-facing version
It is the ruleset most widely used for industrial and commercial sprinklers in the UK, and it is the one a risk engineer is most likely to be holding when they inspect. If your policy names LPC Rules, the base standard on its own is not the whole answer.
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Storage categorisation is the usual sticking point
A Technical Bulletin deals specifically with how goods in storage are categorised, and that categorisation drives the design. It is the commonest reason a warehouse system that was right when it was commissioned stops matching what is now in the building.
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Published by the FPA, not by BSI
The Fire Protection Association publishes it, and the current edition is the 2015 one, which superseded the 2009 edition. That is worth knowing when somebody hands you a specification: an LPC reference and a BS reference are not interchangeable citations.
Where it applies
- Warehouses and distribution centres with insurer-set requirements
- Manufacturing and industrial premises
- Risk-rated commercial premises where a broker has specified the ruleset
- Any building where the policy names LPC Rules rather than BS EN 12845
Not sure whether this is the standard your building is held to?
It is a survey question rather than a paperwork one, and it is free. We read the specification and the policy rather than assuming the default.
What we do to this standard
- BS EN 12845 and BS 9251 Design and installation New systems, extensions and upgrades, designed, installed and commissioned. Fire sprinkler system design and installation
- BS EN 12845 Sprinkler servicing The full BS EN 12845 routine, from the weekly gauge and alarm check to the annual service. Fire sprinkler servicing and maintenance
- BS EN 12845 Fire pumps Electric and diesel sets proved under flow, not just started and signed off. Fire pump servicing, testing and maintenance
- BS EN 12845 Sprinkler tanks The water supply behind the system, inspected, cleaned and replaced when it is past it. Sprinkler tank service, maintenance and replacement
LPC Rules: questions
Are the LPC Rules the same as BS EN 12845?
Not quite, and the difference is the point. The LPC Rules incorporate BS EN 12845 in full and then add Technical Bulletins on top of it. So everything in the British Standard is in the LPC Rules, but not everything in the LPC Rules is in the British Standard. If your insurer specified LPC Rules, meeting BS EN 12845 alone may still leave a gap against the policy.
Our insurer specified LPC Rules. What do we actually need to do?
The first step is to find out what the system was originally designed to, because that is usually the gap. A system designed and certificated to BS EN 12845 may need nothing, or may need specific items addressed where a Technical Bulletin applies to your building. We survey against the ruleset the policy names rather than the one the last contractor used, and put the difference in writing.
Who publishes the LPC Rules?
The Fire Protection Association. The current edition is the 2015 one, which superseded the 2009 edition. It is a commercial publication rather than a British Standard, which is why it is cited separately in insurance documents and specifications.
Does a change in what we store affect our LPC compliance?
Very often, yes, and this is the single commonest way a compliant warehouse system stops being one. A Technical Bulletin deals with the categorisation of goods in storage, and that categorisation drives the design density and the water supply behind it. A change of stock or a change of tenant is the right moment to have the design rechecked, because it is the moment an insurer will.
Worth reading next
- Compliance What your insurer actually wants from a sprinkler system Insurers price a sprinkler system as risk mitigation only if they can trust it. LPCB approval of the contractor and an unbroken maintenance record are the two things that make it count.
- Sprinklers Sprinklers in warehouses: why racking changes everything A warehouse sprinkler system is designed against a specific storage height, storage arrangement and commodity class. Raising the racking, changing what is stored or adding racking under a roof-only design can leave the system unable to control a fire it was never designed for.
- Compliance BS EN 12845, in plain English BS EN 12845 is the European standard for the design, installation and maintenance of fixed fire sprinkler systems in commercial and industrial buildings. It is the document that sets the weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual routines a UK sprinkler system has to be kept to.
The published documents behind this page
We work to these. Where a figure on this page comes from one of them, this is where to check it.
- LPC RulesLPC Rules for Automatic Sprinkler Installations, incorporating BS EN 12845
The insurer-facing ruleset that sits alongside BS EN 12845. Part 1 is the standard itself; the technical bulletins in Part 2 are what an insurer means by property protection.
Fire Protection Association
- BS EN 12845Fixed firefighting systems. Automatic sprinkler systems. Design, installation and maintenance
The standard commercial and industrial sprinkler systems are designed, installed and maintained to. It sets the weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual routines.
BSI
British Standards are copyright documents and most are bought rather than read free. We hold the ones we work to. If you need to know what one of them says about your building, ask us rather than buying it.
Approved, and audited on a schedule.
Two certifications, and the first one is the reason we could apply for the second. ISO 9001 is a precondition for LPCB approval, so this is a sequence rather than a collection.
ISO 9001:2015
Certified by BRE Global, accredited by UKAS
An audited quality management system. It means the way a job is planned, recorded and signed off is itself inspected by somebody independent, on a schedule.
LPCB approved
Loss Prevention Certification Board
The approval UK insurers look for on sprinkler work. A system installed by an LPCB approved contractor counts as genuine risk mitigation on your policy; one installed by anybody else may not.
Working to BS EN 12845, BS 9251 and BS 9990. If your insurer or fire risk assessor wants the certificates themselves, ring us and we will send them over.
Tell us the building. We will tell you what it is due.
No survey fee to find out where you stand. Describe the site and we will tell you which intervals apply and what the visit involves.