In most modern commercial industrial buildings in the UK there will be a fire alarm system of some sort. These fire alarm systems will have a main fire alarm control panel which is communicating with the fire alarm system detectors and devices around the building.
What is a Fire Alarm Panel?
Fire Alarm Panels split up a fire alarm system into a number of zones. A fire alarm zone should contain between 1 and 15 detectors. The purpose of the fire alarm zone is to allow the area in which a fire alarm activation has happened to be quickly identified. The fire alarm panel will have a series of buttons on the front facia of the panel to allow the user to control and interrogate the system. The fire alarm panels generally have a number of warning and fault led's in a prominent position which show the current status of the system. These warning and fault LED's are there to inform the building user and fire alarm engineers that there is a problem or issue which needs to be resolved on the fire alarm system. There are several types of fire alarm panels which are used and the type which is suitable for a project varies from building to building. Inside the fire alarm panel is a series of standby sealed lead acid batteries which in the event of a mains failure to the panel allow the panel to carry on functioning on the standby batteries.
The Types of Fire Alarm Panels
Conventional / Non-addressable Fire Alarm Panels
Conventional or Non-addressable Fire Alarm Panels are generally used for smaller fire alarm installations where the number of zones required is between 1 and 8. These panels feature individual radial circuits for the zones and seperate sounder circuits.
Conventional fire alarm panels tend to be a more cost effective option compared to other types of panels available on the market.
Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Panels
Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Panels are used for larger installations where wiring individual zone circuits on conventional fire alarm systems is no longer a viable option. These systems utilise loop circuits which can incorporate a number of zones, detectors, call points and sounders on the same circuit. Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Systems can individually address devices on a system which gives a text location of individual devices.
Wireless Fire Alarm System Panels
Wireless Fire Alarm System Panels feature a number of zones like conventional and analogue addressable fire alarm systems however they communicate using radio communications with the system devices. This means that cables do not need to be installed for the detectors, call points and sounders on the system.
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Fire Alarm Systems
