FIRE ALARM INSTALLATION & MONITORING
Today's fire alarm systems are capable of doing much more than simply detecting a fire and sounding an alarm. The system can execute a variety of control functions intended to increase safety of building occupants and that of fire responders. The purpose of a Commercial Fire Alarm System is to Detect, Alert and Evacuate. Contrary to what some believe Life Safety is the main purpose of a Fire System, rather than property protection. A Fire Alarm System is a combination of components and circuits arranged to monitor and annunciate the status of a Fire Alarm or supervisory signal-initiating device and to initiate appropriate response to those signals.
Components of a Fire Alarm
The Fire Alarm Control Panel is a system component that monitors inputs and controls outputs through various types of circuits; it is considered the brain of the system. The control panel also provides power to the initiating and signaling devices while also monitoring each circuit. The main elements of a fire control panel are the main board, motherboard and central processing unit (CPU). The fire alarm control panel requires two power sources, alternating current (AC) as the primary power source and direct current (DC) as the secondary power source. There are many choices when choosing a fire alarm control panel. Some examples include Fire-Lite, Honeywell, Silent Knight, GE, DSC, Notifier and Simplex. Guard Pro Protection Systems is proud to install Fire-Lite, Honeywell and Silent Knight panels with the newest supplier to the mix being Napco. The new Napco panel is the first panel to offer wireless UL approved initiating devices reduce labor costs when retrofitting an existing building.
A Notification Appliance is a fire alarm system component such as a bell, horn, speaker, light or text display that provides audible, tactile, or visible output, or any other combination. Notification Appliances are run on a circuit or path directly connected to a notification appliance. This is known as NAC (Notification Appliance Circuit). When installing these type of devices it is best to standardize a manufacturer because strobe synchronization may be come an issue. In the 1996 edition of NFPA 72, a new code was added concerning strobe synchronization to comply with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). As of today’s date, strobe synchronization is also required by ANSI 117.1 (National Standard for Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities and UL Standard 1971 (Signaling Devices for the Hearing Impaired). The reason behind this code requirement is to help prevent photosensitive epilepsy. Guard Pro offers many choices for Notification Appliances such as System Sensor, Wheelock, GE, Gentex, Potter & Edwards.
An Initiating Device is a system component that originates transmission of a change of condition such as smoke detector, manual fire station, water flow switch or supervisory switch. (These types of devices are connected on an Initiating Device Circuit (IDC) which is a circuit that automatic or manual initiating devices are connected where the signal received does not identify the individual device operated.)
Types of Fire Alarm Systems
A Protected Premise (Local) Fire Alarm System is a protected premise system that sounds an alarm at the protected premise as the result of the manual operation of a fire alarm box or the operation of protection equipment or systems, such as water flowing in a sprinkler system, the discharge of carbon dioxide, the detection of smoke or the detection of heat. A local system has no requirement to transmit signals to a remote monitoring facility.
Central Station Fire Alarm System is a system or group of systems in which the operations of circuits and devices are transmitted automatically to, recorded in, maintained by, and supervised from a listed central station that has competent and experienced servers and operators who, upon receipt of a signal , take such action as required by NFPA 72. Such service is to be controlled and operated by a person, firm, or corporation whose business is the furnishing, maintaining, or monitoring of supervised fire alarm systems. Guard Pro Protection Systems has been protecting Arizona businesses with our UL approved fire alarm monitoring services for over 12 years .
Types of Fire Alarm Communicators
Fire Alarm communicators are not limited to POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) lines anymore. There are many manufacturers producing cellular communicators and IP communicators that are acceptable to Fire Marshals these days.
A Digital Alarm Communicating Transmitter (DACT) has the ability to transmit information related to events occurring in a fire alarm system to a monitoring facility using "languages" called formats. Some formats make it possible to transmit virtually every event that occurs in a fire alarm system. The monitoring facility must have a receiver that is compatible with the format used by the DACT. They are required by NFPA to have two distinct means of transmission (2 analog phone lines).
Digital cellular communicators transmit IP data packets directly from the panel’s processor over the GSM/GPRS wireless data network. Adding a Cellular Communicator to the fire alarm control panel can lower costs significantly compared to dial-up connections. Fire systems typically require two dial-up lines that can be eliminated and replaced with a single cellular connection.
IP Communicators are designed to transmit fire alarm system information to central monitoring stations over any standard IP network (i.e. LAN, WAN, DSL, cable, etc.). IP Communicators connect to a fire alarm control panel’s standard telephone ports, no changes to the panel’s existing configuration are required. This fully-digital transmission method eliminates common dropouts in modem communications caused by noise or other factors.
