New fire safety rules in Sweden will increase the need for automatic fire alarms

From 1 July 2026, the Swedish National Board of Housing, Building and Planning’s new fire protection rules, BFS 2024:7, will come into effect. For the market, the change is likely less about new technical requirements for the systems themselves and more about the fact that fire and evacuation alarms will be required in more situations than before. 

According to Samuel Lundin, fire engineer at Fire and Risk Engineering, the fundamental requirements for the systems are largely unchanged. The new rules still emphasise reliability and capability and continue to reference established standards for fire alarms and voice evacuation alarms. 

“What is changing is not primarily the product itself, but rather in which types of premises it may now be required,” says Lundin. 

He highlights two changes in particular. One concerns assembly venues, where the rules now require automatic fire and evacuation alarms in situations where a manual evacuation alarm previously could have sufficed. The other concerns preschools and other daycare facilities, where requirements have been tightened from smoke detectors to automatic fire and evacuation alarms. 

This could mean that automatic detection takes on a greater role in future projects. 

Another change affects the requirements for voice evacuation alarms in assembly venues. Under the new rules, the threshold at which a voice evacuation alarm is required is raised from 300 to 600 people. At the same time, requirements for automatic detection are tightened in all assembly venues for more than 150 people. In addition, the number of people is now to be assessed based on the entire premises, not just the individual fire compartment, meaning that more spaces than before will be classified as assembly venues. 

Overall, Lundin believes this could affect demand over time. 

“There is uncertainty about how demand for voice evacuation alarms will be affected by the changes, but what is certain is that we will see more fire alarm installations and expanded detection,” he says. 

In practice, this could mean that the focus is less on modifying already-compliant systems and more on meeting needs across a greater variety of projects. Lundin’s assessment is that the requirements for the systems themselves are largely unchanged, while the regulations may make fire and evacuation alarms relevant in more situations than before. 

The timing is also significant. Boverket’s new building rules apply strictly from 1 July 2026, following a transition period during which it was possible to choose between the old and the new regulatory framework. 

From that perspective, the change is not necessarily about a new type of product, but about a changed role for fire and evacuation alarms in future construction projects.