Conventional fire alarm systems provide an adequate and cost effective fire alarm system for many small buildings. In larger, more complex buildings however, more sophisticated ‘intelligent’ fire alarm systems tend to be used. These systems offer benefits in speed of detection, identification of the location of a fire and easier maintenance. Intelligent systems also offer tolerance to faults in the system wiring, which allows a single pair of wires to be used to connect many devices.
Benefits
1) Easy and Less Expensive Installation
Addressable systems offer the option between loop or bus topology. This offers you a high flexibility in wiring new systems and modifying or upgrading the existing ones also. In a loop topology, less cabling is required when compared with conventional systems. It allows you to use two wires instead of four. This results in a considerable amount of time and cost reduction.
2) Effortless Up gradation
An addressable fire alarm system is preferred for the ease with which it can be reprogrammed. So, if your property needs change concerning its size or functioning, it can be effortlessly provided by the addressable alarm system. Even the basic model of an addressable control panel can be configured via Windows on a PC. This way, you can ensure that the right response will be provided to your commercial property with this system.
3) Accurate Location of The Fire
With addressable systems, each device has an address or location, enabling the exact detector that was triggered to be quickly identified. Each device is given a unique identity usually in the form of a number. When a fire breaks out, a programmed location text message is displayed on the front of the fire alarm display screen. This way, when a fire occurs, the system identifies the exact location. This feature enables the system to save time locating the fire and extinguish it faster, thus reducing damage to the property, assets, and people.
4) Flexibility and Ease of Use
Installing, programming or using an addressable fire alarm system isn’t as difficult as it may seem. The detector’s settings can be programmed independently for any device. Auto addressing, single point disablement, on-screen help and a USB interface are easy to be programmed and operated. These systems also provide the ability to monitor the integrity of the system, with detector health checks such as the location of loop faults, and programming specific actions such as door monitoring and gas detection.