Fire Alarms

An addressable fire alarm system is made up of a series of fire detectors and devices that are connected back to a central control panel.
With addressable systems, each device has an address or location, enabling the exact detector that was triggered to be quickly identified. This makes addressable alarm systems ideal for large buildings, particularly commercial premises spread over a wide area.

Advantages of addressable fire alarms

• Quickly determine the location of a fire.
• Specific actions can be programmed by the user.
• Reduced likelihood and better handling of false alarms.
• More reliability, less likely to lose connection.
• Lower overall cost of wiring.
• Ability to monitor integrity of the system, with detector health checks

Fire alarm systems that can be programmed

One of the biggest advantages of addressable fire alarm systems is that they can be configured so that a specific action triggers a specific response.
For example, cause and effect programming can be used to say that a particular 'cause' such as activation of a fire detector, has the effect of alarms sounding in a specified area and the system being put on alert mode in another. This means that phased evacuation can take place, with priority areas evacuated first. Each area of a building can then be evacuated one at a time, which allows safer fire evacuation procedures in large buildings.

Reduce false fire alarms

False alarms cause disruption and can be costly, so it's in any clients interest to minimise their impact and reduce the likeliness of them occurring in the first place.
One of the advantages of addressable fire alarms is that they can allow air to be monitored through the detectors, so if air is contaminated for example with dust (which can activate some fire alarm systems) then a 'pre-fire' warning is triggered. This allows investigation to take place, so any issues can be rectified before a full scale false activation of the system takes place.

Conventional fire alarm systems have been around for many years. They range from simple 1 or 2 zone systems, to addressable systems with over 100 zones.

Conventional detection offers a good basic system, ideal for small applications, or projects on a tight budget.

The detectors in a zone (or area) of the building are all connected to the same pair of wires. If any of these detectors reports an alarm, a single indication is shown on the control panel, meaning that the exact location of the alarm is not shown.

The sounders (including sounder bases) are wired on a separate circuit.

An end of line unit is fitted to the last device in each circuit (Detection Zone, or sounder), in order to monitor the line for breaks.

Advantages of a Conventional Fire Alarm System over an Addressable Fire Alarm System
• Control panel & devices tend to be cheaper
• Simple setup, no configuration required
• Wide range of compatibility between manufacturers

The ASD system is often an integral part of the overall fire detection & alarm system particularly when used as an alternative to point or beam type smoke detectors. When this is the case, the ASD system designer must still maintain compliance to National Standards, especially for fault monitoring, zoning, battery standby etc.

The ASD system works by continually drawing air into sampling holes in a pipe network. The air is filtered and passed into a detection chamber where light-scattering technology detects the presence of very small amounts of smoke. Detector status information is communicated on the detector display.

The principal reason for using ASDs is the benefit of very early warning signs of smoke indication. This means that evasive/evacuation measures can be initiated before any significant damage is incurred in areas containing high value, critical or strategically important artefacts or operations.

Its enhanced smoke sensitivity makes an ASD a reliable smoke detector, in applications where smoke is difficult to detect e.g. to combat smoke dilution where there is high air flow or where the ceiling is higher than normal.

There are many motivations for deploying an ASD system:

•Extreme environments
•Harsh environments e.g. extreme temperature, humidity, contamination etc.
•Restricted/difficult access
•Future access for maintenance will be difficult or even impossible after installation.
•Exceptional ceiling heights & heat barriers
•Stratification, dispersion and dilution issues are present as well as access restrictions.
•Architectural or aesthetic requirements preclude mounting services on the ceiling.
•Risk of mechanical damage
•Operational damage is anticipated (e.g. in racking and storage systems).
•Anti-vandal systems
•Vandalism may be an issue so therefore discreet detection is required.
•Hazardous environments
•The risk is hazardous e.g. explosive, chemical, radioactive environments etc.

Our alarms can be used within a multitude of  premises including, but not only

• Industrial
• Local Authorities
• Office Complexes
• Retail Outlets
• Small Businesses
• Residential Homes
• Multiple Occupancy Buildings
• Schools