Fire alarms are perhaps the most useful devices when it comes to the safety of people. With the surge of high-rise buildings, evacuation in case of fire becomes critical. It is of utmost importance to detect a fire as early as possible to ensure maximum protection. The next step would be to deduct its exact location.
Intelligent Fire Alarm
The Rise of Intelligent Fire Alarms
An intelligent fire alarm system, also known as addressable fire alarm systems, are significantly more advanced compared to their conventional counterparts. Unlike the traditional fire alarm systems, these intelligent systems can accurately pinpoint the location of the fire. It is especially useful for a large building where several tens or hundreds of fire alarms. Finding the exact source of the fire will allow a more efficient evacuation procedure.
How Addressable Fire Alarm Systems Work
The presence of multiple Single Line Circuits or SLCs makes it possible to program each of the fire alarms differently. By doing so, each device will have a specific address or location. They can be identified uniquely by the control panel. Thus, the fire alarms can be configured differently depending on the specification of each room. More accurate readings will be obtained, thereby increasing performance.
Advantages of using such Systems
- 1Monitoring
These systems also have detectors to monitor the air quality. In the traditional arrangement, dust might falsely trigger the alarm. By using such a sensor, an alert can be given. On investigation, the appropriate measures can be taken to prevent a large-scale false alarm.
- 2Custom Programming
An important advantage of these systems is the ability to program a specific response to a situation. For example, it can be used to signal an alarm only in the affected regions, whereas the surrounding areas will be put into alert mode. The affected areas can be evacuated first while the surrounding areas are made aware of the emergency.
- 3Reliability
Intelligent fire alarms are very reliable. Unlike the conventional system, a break in the circuit cannot affect other devices. Even if one of the alarms is malfunctioning, the other will continue to monitor.
- 4Ease of Maintenance
Maintenance is easier since each of the devices can be tracked separately and corrected if required. The control panel will receive a notification in the case of failure of a particular node.