How Does a Fire Alarm System Work?

 


Do you own or manage any building or any kind of commercial structure? Possibly, you are quite aware of the codes which necessitate your building(s) to have an effective fire alarm system.

 

The configuration of the system may be incomprehensible for you.  However, fire alarm systems are a far more thorough and multifaceted approach to fire protection than any individual device.

 

How Does a Fire Alarm System Help?


In a layman’s term, the role of a fire alarm system is to recognize fires and warn both building occupants and emergency personnel from a centrally monitored and controlled location.

Essentially, a fire alarm system has four key functions: identify, warn, observe, and manage. These sophisticated systems employ a network of devices, appliances, and control panels to discharge these four responsibilities.

 

Components of a Fire Alarm System utilized by the best alarm companies in Los Angeles


The following are the five key components that constitute every fire alarm system:

 

  • Initiating Devices: initiating devices are the portion of the alarm system which notices smoke or fire. These devices include smoke detectors of different types, heat detectors of many types, sprinkler water flow sensors, and pull stations.

 

  • Indicating Appliances: indicating appliances are the constituent of the system that sounds the alarm and cautions occupants to the fire hazard.
    Indicating appliances comprise horns, chimes, bells, and in certain cases, even strobe lights for the hard of hearing and deaf. These appliances are majorly and intentionally loud so that it doesn’t miss anyone and prompt everyone to leave the building quickly.
    Where those who are deaf or hard of hearing are present, there is a visual warning of the fire too.

 

  • Fire Alarm Panel: the fire alarm control panel is the user interface and main surveilling and controlling element of the system. It has a display showing the present state i.e alarm or no alarm of the fire alarm system and a touchpad, which lets onsite personnel program, troubleshoot, silence, and reset the system.
    The fire alarm panel observes and has a supervisory function over all of the system’s initiating devices, symbolising appliances and all relevant telephone ties, field wiring, and its circuit cards and internal wiring.
    It is also through the fire alarm panel that a call is sent out to a monitoring agency in the event of a triggered alarm so that emergency personnel are notified.

 

  • Power Supplies: Power supplies include the main power from the breaker, (2) 12V batteries as backup for 24 hours, and often a generator as backup power for many fire alarm systems. The batteries may be stored in either the control panel or in a different enclosure. The batteries will take over if the power fails, letting the system continue defending the building from fire for 24 hours. A generator can produce power for longer periods of power outages.

 

  • Auxiliary Devices: many additional devices can be included in a fire alarm system to support fire protection in a facility.
    Extra devices consist of things like visual LED indicators displaying which zone in a building a fire alarm was received, remote annunciators, alarm silence switches, electromagnetic door holders, fire doors, elevator capture and shutdown, etc.

These systems can be as easy or as elaborate as a facility wants and for each element, there is a wide range of options.

 

The 3 States of Fire Alarm Systems


It has been observed mostly in the fire alarm sound systems service in California, that the fire alarm panel notices and intimates what state the system is in at all times. For most systems, there are three states of operation: Normal, Alarm, and Trouble.

If all devices, appliances, wiring, and circuitry are operating perfectly and no alarms are activated, the system is operating in a Normal State.

If an initiating device is activated, the system goes into an Alarm State. The indicating devices will sound, signalling building occupants to the emergency, and the alphanumeric display on the control panel will intimate from which zone of the building(s) the alarm is arising from so that emergency personnel can immediately respond to the exact location.

If short or open wiring forms in the circuits combining the fire alarm panel and initiating devices, or within the panel’s wiring or zone cards, or if the system’s phone line connection is malfunctioning, then the system goes into Trouble State and is shown on the control panel. The panel will show which zone the issue is in and a buzzer will blow to inform maintenance personnel of the problem.

 

How Do Fire Alarm Systems Detect a Fire?


The process in which a fire alarm system identifies a fire is through its initiating devices, as mentioned.

The fire alarm panel is attached to the system’s initiating devices through either 2- or 4-wire circuits. This circuitry lets the control panel observe the condition of its initiating devices, normally by zones, recognizing if the devices are in normal or alarm mode. The control panel displays these readings on its display panel.

If a fire begins, the smoke or heat will stimulate one of the initiating devices or someone will initiate the manual pull station, signalling the fire alarm system to the fire and putting it in alarm mode.

 

What Happens If the Fire Alarm System is Activated?


When the system goes into alarm mode, two things should happen:

 

  • The indicating appliances should sound the alarm, cautioning everyone in the building of the threat.

 

  • A call should go out through the system’s telephone lines to the monitoring company.

In certain fire alarm systems, it may also stimulate fire suppression systems to facilitate fighting the fire until emergency personnel arrives.

 

How To Disarm a Fire Alarm?


The building manager or maintenance crew must know how to read and utilize the fire alarm panel, particularly if it is in a distressed state or is undergoing false alarms.

 

On the touchpad of the control panel, there are alarm and trouble silence options apart from a system reset option. These should only be applied once the source of the alarm or notification has been recognized and can be correctly addressed.
Location: United States

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