If you are fed up with the way your systems are linked together and you are reading this post, then help is at hand!

Site managers will appreciate the time saved in running between buildings

You have a fire alarm system in each building on the site and in some cases they have multiple systems in one building and in order to meet the requirements of the risk assessment they (the various panels) are linked together.

The downside to the above is that if they (the panels) are not linked properly you will find that you (the site manager and his/her team) have to go to each panel individually in order to reset, and this process is often hit and miss and takes at least two people.   The issue with this is that most working sites such as a primary school  will not accept the fire alarm ringing other than for the drills or in the event of the real fire, and whilst the system is being reset it is particularly concerning for the site managers who will be recieving pressure from the staff to stop the fire alarm promptly.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

All fire panels can be interlinked in some manner, this is in some cases the problem,  precisely because a lot of the systems on the market have multiple ways of being linked more often than not the inexperienced installer will choose or wrongly configure the links and inform you that it is the only way that this will work. They are wrong!

Sounds simple enough doesn’t it?  Well although it is fairly simple, if the in built options (on the panels) do not work in the way that you require, we have to use relays, this takes an in-depth knowledge of relays and the uses of the various types that are available, such as latching or non-latching, timed or pulsed etc.  Our engineers are trained in the operation of relays and we believe that this is essential to work on any alarm system.

The other options

I can’t pretend that using the linking methods that I have touched on above will always give you the perfect solution to your needs, the installed panel in your site may not have the non-latching options that many non-addressable panels now have, you may have to look at upgrading the control panel to get the system to operate in the way you prefer.

Addressable Fire Panels

If you have an addressable system then linking the systems should be even easier than non-addressable, you will need to install interfaces to make full use of the capabilities that exist, or if you need more detailed functionality then networking is the option that allows you to see all fire events from all of the buildings on your site at one central control panel or computer graphics system.

Definitions

1. Addressable Panel (system)

This type of system is generally wired in a loop or loops and the each detector is ‘addressed’ these allow the control panel to identify each device individually giving a read out on the control panel such as “SD 012 GRD FLR RECEPTION”

2. Non Addressable Panel (system) more commonly known as ‘conventional’

These panels are basic in operation and are wired in radial circuits (one wire from the panel to all of the smoke detectors without returning to the control panel) This system can only indicate zones such as Ground Floor, meaning that if you have this type of system you may ahve to search the entire ground floor for the detector that has gone off. You would have a zone chart beneath the panel listing zones;

ZONE 1 – GROUND FLOOR

ZONE 2- BOILER ROOM

ETC