Conventional Fire Alarm Systems, in their various forms, have been around for many years and have changed little in that time in terms of technology although design and reliability have improved significantly. However, Conventional Systems are a well-proven technology protecting many hundreds of thousands of properties worldwide. A Conventional Fire Alarm System is often the natural choice for smaller systems or where budget constraints exist.

In a typical Conventional Fire Alarm System the 'intelligence' of the system resides solely within the Fire Alarm Control Panel which receives a trigger signal from a Conventional Detector or Call Point and in turn, signals the condition to other devices such as alarm sounders and remote signalling equipment.

Conventional detectors are normally connected to the Fire Control Panel via dedicated circuits, each circuit protecting a designated 'Zone' or 'Area' of the building. Detectors have two states, Normal healthy and Alarm.

The Fire Control Panel will normally be arranged in a set number of Zones or Circuits e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8 etc. and have 2 separate sounder circuits.

A typical Conventional Fire Alarm Arrangement:

Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Systems differ from conventional systems in a number of ways and certainly add more flexibility, intelligence, speed of identification and scope of control. For this reason Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Systems are the natural choice for larger premises and more complex system requirements.

In an analogue addressable system detectors are wired in a loop around the building with each detector having its own unique 'address'. The system may contain one or more loops depending upon the size of the system and design requirements. The Fire Control Panel 'communicates' with each detector individually and receives a status report e.g. Healthy, In Alarm or In Fault etc.
As each detector has an individual 'address' the fire alarm control panel is able to display/indicate the precise location of the device in question, which obviously helps speed the location of an incident and for this reason 'zoning' of the system is not necessary, although it may be done for convenience.

Addressable detectors are, in themselves, 'intelligent' devices which are capable of reporting far more than just fire or fault conditions, for example most detectors are able to signal if contamination within the device (dust etc) reaches a pre-set level enabling maintenance to take place prior to problems being experienced.

Addressable detectors are also able to provide pre-alarm warnings when smoke/heat levels, reach a pre-set level enabling investigation of the fire to take place prior to a full evacuation alarm and Fire Brigade signalling taking place.

Sounders may either be conventionally wired or by using addressable sounders, wired upon the "loop" thereby making considerable savings in terms of cable and labour.

A typical Analogue Addressable Fire Alarm Arrangement:

Radio Fire Alarm Systems Radio based Wire-Free systems provide a number of unique features that make them an ideal alternative to wired systems for many applications. Sensors can be fitted in less than 10 minutes The fabric of the building is protected and undamaged Disruptive installation works are kept to a minimum Eliminates costly fire-rated cable The systems can be easily moved or upgraded as building use changes Wire-Free solutions are suitable for installation in virtually any type of building or construction, easily matching, and in many cases exceeding, the performance of wired systems.