Fire Alarm Systems

Fire Alarm Systems fall mainly in to two groups - Conventional Systems or Analogue Addressable Systems.

Within those two categories you can have wired and wireless fire alarm systems.

Addressable Fire Alarm Systems differ from conventional systems in several ways and certainly add more flexibility, processor intelligence, speed and accuracy of identification and scope of control. For this reason wireless fire alarm systems or Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Systems are the natural choice for Commercial premises and more complex system requirements.

The fire detection in an analogue addressable system, the detectors are wired in a loop around the building with each detector having its own unique 'identification address'. The fire alarm system may contain one or more loops depending upon the size of the system and design requirements. The Fire Control Panel 'communicates' with each smoke detector individually and receives a status report e.g. Healthy, In Alarm or In Fault etc. As each smoke detector has an individual 'address' the fire alarm control panel is able to display/indicate the precise location of the device in question, which obviously helps speed the location of an fire activation.

The fire detection in Addressable fire alarm systems are, in themselves, "intelligent" devices which are capable of reporting far more than just fire or fault conditions, for example most smoke detectors are able to signal if contamination within the device (dust etc) reaches a pre-set level enabling fire alarm maintenance to take place prior to problems being experienced. Addressable detectors are also able to provide pre-alarm warnings when smoke/heat levels, reach a pre-set level enabling investigation of the fire to take place prior to a full evacuation alarm and Fire Brigade signalling taking place.

Addressable wireless fire alarms offer the same performance as a wired addressable system.

Fire alarm testing should be carried out on weekly basis, usually testing one manual call point per week and logging this into a fire log book.

The fire alarm service of both types of systems should be maintained at a minimum of a six monthly period.