Specifying a facade-mounted smoke and heat vent on an Australian project usually raises the same question: which standard does this product fall under? It’s a fair question — and one worth answering clearly. This article walks through the Australian standards landscape, where facade-mounted Natural Smoke and Heat Vents (NSHVs) fit within it, and how SJ Protégér — Safetyline Jalousie’s facade louvre system designed for this application — addresses the gap.
The Australian standards landscape
Australia has a comprehensive suite of fire and ventilation standards, but none of them were written with a glazed, facade-mounted, automatically opening louvre in mind.
AS 1530.4 is the fire-resistance test method for elements of construction. The standard itself confirms that the assessment of smoke production and smoke spread is outside its scope. It tests whether elements hold back fire, not whether vents move smoke out of a building.
AS 2427 and AS 2665 cover smoke and heat release vents and venting systems. Both are written explicitly around vents “intended to be mounted in roofs of buildings.”
NCC 2022 Specification 22 is the Deemed-to-Satisfy pathway for natural smoke venting. It calls up AS 2665 and, through that reference, inherits the roof-vent scope of AS 2427 and AS 2665.
AS/NZS 4740:2000 (now revised as AS 4740:2025) is the architectural louvre standard. Its scope statement is explicit: “This Standard does not apply to electrically powered ventilators or to smoke and heat exhaust ventilators.”
AS 1668.1 governs mechanical smoke control — zone pressurisation, mechanical exhaust, stair pressurisation. A passive, naturally driven facade vent sits outside its scope.
The result is that there is no Australian product standard that specifically covers a glazed, facade-mounted NSHV.
EN 12101-2: the European product standard
EN 12101-2 is the harmonised European product standard for Natural Smoke and Heat Exhaust Ventilators. At the time of writing, it is the only published product standard globally that includes dedicated provisions for wall-mounted (facade) NSHVs, with separate test setups, classifications, and discharge coefficients that account for side-wind effects on a vertical opening.
Under EN 12101-2, a compliant NSHV is type-tested as a complete unit — opening element plus actuator — by an accredited Notified Body. EN 12101-2 is widely used internationally and is the standard referenced by European NSHV manufacturers selling into Australia.
The NCC Performance Solution pathway
Australia’s National Construction Code is a performance-based code. Where the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions don’t cover a particular product application, the NCC allows for Performance Solutions to be developed under Part A2 (A2G2), using one or more of the prescribed Assessment Methods: Evidence of Suitability, Verification Method, Expert Judgement, and Comparison with the Deemed-to-Satisfy Provisions.
Performance Solutions are designed and documented by qualified fire engineers, agreed with the relevant building surveyor, and signed off in accordance with the ABCB’s Performance Solution Process Handbook. This is the same process applied to many other engineered fire safety solutions across Australian commercial construction.
For facade-mounted NSHVs, the EN 12101-2 product certification typically forms part of the evidence base supporting the Performance Solution. The specific compliance pathway for any project is a matter for the project’s fire engineer to design and document.
Where SJ Protégér fits
SJ Protégér is Safetyline Jalousie’s facade louvre system designed for facade-integrated smoke and heat ventilation. It is an Australian-manufactured, glazed or aluminium-bladed louvre, tested to EN 12101-2 Annex G at an accredited Notified Body, with actuator integration through SE Controls — one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of smoke and natural ventilation actuators. The system is delivered as a complete tested unit (louvre plus actuator), supplied with the EN 12101-2 test report and supporting certification documentation that fire engineers can use as part of the Performance Solution evidence base.
SJ Protégér is in service on projects including Mason & Main, Merrylands (NSW’s largest build-to-rent development at completion, with over 350 SJ Protégér louvres in the corridors) and the Adina Apartment Hotel Pentridge in Coburg, designed by Cox Architecture.
What SJ Protégér offers project teams
Several characteristics of SJ Protégér are worth noting for architects, fire engineers and specifiers considering facade-integrated smoke ventilation:
- Australian manufactured. Designed, manufactured and supported locally — shorter lead times than imported alternatives, direct manufacturer technical support, and supply chain reliability for Australian project timelines.
- Dual-purpose facade element. The same louvre can serve daily natural ventilation requirements and fire-mode smoke ventilation, removing the need to coordinate two separate facade systems. For project teams working on residential corridors, hotel adaptive reuse, or commercial typologies where roof venting isn’t practical, this consolidates the smoke strategy into the facade rather than requiring plant routed through the roof.
- High-airtightness in closed state. Independently tested at 0.12 L/s/m² air leakage — more than 40 times tighter than the AS 2047 high-leakage threshold of 5.0 L/s/m², and comparable to the sealing performance of a fixed pane window. Façade airtightness modelling by Inhabit Group has shown up to 20% improvement in overall envelope performance where SJ louvres replace generic alternatives in the same design.
- Architectural flexibility. Available in glazed or aluminium-bladed configurations, with frame and finish options compatible with a range of facade languages. Integration with the broader Safetyline Jalousie product family allows the same architectural louvre vocabulary to extend across daily ventilation (SJ Jalousie), large-format facade panels (SJ Espacer), thermally broken openings (SJ Thermique), and fire applications (SJ Protégér).
- Tested as a complete unit. EN 12101-2 certification applies to the louvre plus the actuator, tested together as the standard requires. This matters for specification: the system installed to site is the system that was tested.
- In-service track record. Delivered into mid-rise residential, build-to-rent, hotel adaptive reuse, and commercial projects across Australia — supplied, installed and signed off as part of the projects’ Performance Solutions.
To discuss SJ Protégér in the context of a current project — or to request test reports and supporting documentation — get in touch with our team.
