CBP Magazine: Articles

Forced to upgrade your building's fire-alarm system? It may not be as expensive and disruptive as you fear.

Current economic conditions have caused new construction starts to plummet and existing-building maintenance budgets to wane. While working to keep various building systems up to par with fewer dollars, owners are at a loss when faced with the momentous, presumably costly, task of upgrading their fire-alarm/life-safety systems.

The environment surrounding any type of life-safety or security system has changed rapidly over the past decade. Technological advancements, and campus shootings and other terrorist events, have brought about more stringent local and national requirements. Building occupants' expectations as to the sophistication of the fire-alarm system protecting them have also risen.

In the state of Rhode Island, for instance, the upkeep of antiquated systems is no longer allowed. The West Warwick, RI, Station Night Club fire, which claimed the lives of 100 people in February 2003, led the state to make sweeping changes to, most notably, its grandfather clauses.

"In Rhode Island, and many other states, older, simplistic systems must be upgraded. Wiring integrity, fault tolerance, and survivability are other critical factors that have led local authorities to mandate Class A, style 6 or 7 field wiring," said Dick Aldrich, project engineer for Gamewell-FCI, Northford, CT, manufacturer of commercial fire-alarm and mass-notification systems. Today, Rhode Island's local fire-alarm requirements closely mimic NFPA (National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA) codes.

When crafting the current 2007 version of NFPA 72: National Fire Alarm Code, intelligibility of fire-alarm audio was a big focus. The new regulations are intended to improve the clarity of live voice and recorded messages delivered through fire alarm EVAC (emergency-voice/audio-communications) systems. Raising the volume of audible notification was simply not enough.

Public places such as airports, auditoriums, hospitals, and schools topped the list for EVAC upgrades. With many regional codes requiring EVAC systems in high-rise applications, new intelligibility requirements led to a flurry of renovations in a number of U.S. cities.

A draft of the next version of NFPA 72, due in 2010, shows a major emphasis on mass-notification systems, otherwise referred to as ECS (emergency-communications systems). These new codes are expected to give an ECS priority over any fire-alarm system, and both systems are required to be linked. Heightened public-safety expectations and liability concerns have led a large segment of healthcare, industrial, and educational facilities to contemplate a combined fire-alarm/ECS.

Many multi-building complexes find themselves saddled with a variety of systems, all different in make and age. The networking and monitoring capabilities of today's fire alarms have become tremendously sophisticated. Facility and security managers have found it worth the investment to upgrade to new systems that can be tied together and monitored from one or more remote locations.

When a major alteration is made to a building's protected space, those situations most times call for a fire-alarm system upgrade. An addition, structural reconfiguration, or redefining of building space for alternative use are primary examples. Fire-alarm systems can also simply become obsolete. Parts are no longer produced, or the cost to maintain the systems starts to outweigh the expense of a renovation.

"In 1985, a low-end, low-complexity fire alarm could have a 20-year lifespan. Today's systems are faster and more sophisticated, and are heavily dependent on software to provide intelligent system response and control. These systems must be capable of accepting ongoing software upgrades to keep pace with rapid code changes and customer demands for additional features," said Aldrich.

Sophisticated modules, allowing existing detection and notification devices to integrate with state-of-the-art fire-alarm control panels, are providing huge renovation savings. Some types of pre-existing wire can also be used to decrease material and labor costs, and speed installation time.

As codes change and technologies are enhanced, fire-alarm and life-safety systems will most likely incur more regular renovations. Acquiring the best fire protection, specific to the needs of each application, is always the ultimate goal. However, renovations need not entail a costly system overhaul.

A high-rise building encompassing 140,000 sq. ft. of office space, a three-story atrium, and a 120,000-sq.-ft. garage is a fire-systems design challenge. This complex serves as the office headquarters for SMC (Southern Management Corp., College Park, MD), the largest privately owned, residential property-management company in the mid-Atlantic region.

Keeping SMC's antiquated fire-alarm system code compliant was becoming an expensive, ongoing issue. The exorbitant cost of replacing the headquarters' entire system, including wires, peripheral devices, and the main EVAC control panel, was not an option.

In its search for a high-tech, yet economical solution, SMC turned to the Springfield, VA, branch of Alarm Tech Solutions LLC. Using the E3 series expandable, emergency-evacuation system, manufactured by Gamewell-FCI, Alarm Tech designed a state-of-the-art system that repurposed many of the SMC fire alarm's existing parts.

"The whole building is covered by one E3 series voice EVAC panel, with firefighter phones and live paging capabilities. The best part was being able to use most of the existing wire, speakers, strobes, and fire phones," said Marty Smith, general manager of Alarm Tech. The E3 series incorporated all components using the building's existing copper. New, more intelligent, detection devices, including a set of beam detectors in the lobby atrium, encompassed the majority of new system parts.

"Southern Management had a significant false-alarm problem. The intelligence of this new system allows it to detect issues and send maintenance alerts before evacuating a whole building full of people," said Smith.

Alarm Tech included an NGA (network graphic annunciator) as part of the E3 series main panel to assist building management and first responders to interact with the system. Smoke control was another function of the previous SMC fire alarm that integrated easily into the new E3 series system. By controlling a series of fans and dampers, the series quickly exhausts smoke from the floor in alarm, and the floors above and below it. Considering the size of the atrium, an elaborate mix of exhaust and fresh-air ventilation operations were also incorporated into the new system.

The Chicago Temple Building has been home to the First United Methodist Church of Chicago since 1924. Distinguished as the world's tallest church building, this 28-floor skyscraper houses a unique composition of worship sanctuaries, the pastoral residence, and several floors of office space.

Due to recent changes in local fire codes and extensive construction within the Chicago Temple, its owners were required to renovate the skyscraper's 50-yr.-old, 120-VAC unsupervised manual-alarm system.

"The City of Chicago began requiring EVAC systems for high-rise buildings after a fire next door in the Cook County building. That fire caused extensive damage and, much worse, people died," said Ken Creed, owner and president of Fire & Security Specialists, Alsip, IL.

The modular design of the E3 series enables Creed's fire technicians to build the system as large or as small as is needed for the application, while allowing easy expansion or reconfiguration down the road.

The E3 series' SLC (signaling line circuit) network uses digital-signaling technology that requires only one UTP (unshielded twisted pair) of conductors for network communication to 3,000-ft. between nodes. This single pair of wires integrates virtually every facet of the system in the Temple, from firefighter phones to elevator control, and from detection to notification.

According to Creed, the E3 series system features ARCnet, a high-speed data network over which control and sensor data, as well as bi-directional audio communications, are transmitted. The system supports 25,000 SLC loop devices with 64 nodes comprised of modules, such as power supplies, voice controllers, and addressable relays.

"We installed automatic smoke detection, elevator recall, fireman's phone, sprinkler supervisory, and voice evacuation," said Creed. "The ability to use a few pairs of wire for sensor data as well as voice and other communications is what makes the E3 series system so attractive, especially in large high-rise situations like the Chicago Temple Building."

Installation of fire-alarm system components throughout the Chicago Temple Building was no easy task. "The building itself is made of clay tile with marble applied over that. There are no accessible open walls through which to install wires and the like," said Rich Dougan, Chicago Temple's operations manager. "And there is no drywall over that in which to hide the wiring."

The E3 series flexible design and two-conductor wiring enabled Creed to save the client a substantial amount of money. Traditional technology would have resulted in more cables, larger conduits, and extensive architectural damage. Altogether, the historic Chicago Temple received a low-cost, high-tech renovation that will stand the test of time.

Beth Welch has worked as a communications manager for Honeywell Fire Systems, Northford, CT, for five years. Honeywell Fire Systems encompasses the companies of Gamewell-FCI, Silent Knight, Fire-Lite Alarms, Notifier, and Honeywell Power Products.

Fire-Alarm Renovations: High Tech at Low Cost