Fire Alarm Systems

Fire alarms provide early detection of a variety of different fire situations.

Fire Alarm Systems and Detection

Fire alarms provide early detection in a variety of different fire situations. These alarms help lead to a swift evacuation and faster response time by emergency responders. This can significantly reduce property loss and damage in addition to saving lives.

Every commercial building is required to have at least one commercial fire alarm.

Chief Facility Defense is a full service fire alarm design, installation, inspection, maintenance and monitoring company that can handle all your company’s needs. Whether you are in need of upgrading your current fire protection system or would like to install new fire alarms, our certified trained specialists will make sure your fire alarm is well maintained and always within code.

Fire Alarm Categories

There are two different and distinct categories of Commercial fire alarms.

The first one is an Automatic fire alarm. When these alarms detect heat or smoke, they send an audio-visual alert throughout the building to alert the occupants of danger.

The next type of fire alarm is a Manual alarm. These fire alarms have pull stations stationed around your building. When a fire is seen or smelled by one of your employees, they simply pull the leveler and alert the occupants. Manual alarms come in a variety of designs and colors.

Fire Alarm Types

Addressable Fire Alarms

These fire alarms are also referred to as “intelligent systems” as they monitor the fire alarms in your building. An Addressable fire alarm is ideal for large commercial buildings. Addressable alarms allow you to choose between automatic and manual alarms. Each alarm installed in this system has its own unique identification or “address”, which allows you to see which alarm is working and which are failing. This allows emergency responders to quickly locate the fire.

Complex programming can also be achieved on the system which is a huge benefit. For example, evacuations can be carefully planned depending on which detector is triggered with what’s called “cause and effect” programming. This can control the timing of other alarms in different areas of the building to allow for safer and more efficient evacuations.

Addressable fire alarms are more expensive because of the monitoring features but could be more cost effective in the long run. All devices in this type of commercial fire alarm system are connected by one wire in a loop to the main control panel, making it easy to add additional devices later on.

Hybrid Fire Alarms

Hybrid alarms combine the hardwired zone features of conventional fire alarms with the addressable loops of the addressable fire alarms into a single panel. This combined technology fits some of the settings better than either the addressable or the conventional alarm.

Ionization vs Photoelectric

The two most commonly recognized smoke detection technologies are ionization smoke detection and photoelectric smoke detection.

Ionization Smoke Alarms

Ionization smoke alarms are generally more responsive to flaming fires.
How they work: Ionization-type smoke alarms have a small amount of radioactive material between two electrically charged plates, which ionizes the air and causes current to flow between the plates. When smoke enters the chamber, it disrupts the flow of ions, thus reducing the flow of current and activating the alarm.

Photoelectric Smoke Alarms

Photoelectric smoke alarms are generally more responsive to fires that begin with a long period of smoldering (called “smoldering fires”).
How they work: Photoelectric-type alarms aim a light source into a sensing chamber at an angle away from the sensor. Smoke enters the chamber, reflecting light onto the light sensor; triggering the alarm.

For each type of smoke alarm, the advantage it provides may be critical to life safety in some fire situations. Home fatal fires, day or night, include a large number of smoldering fires and a large number of flaming fires. You can not predict the type of fire you may have in your home or when it will occur. Any smoke alarm technology, to be acceptable, must perform acceptably for both types of fires in order to provide early warning of fire at all times of the day or night and whether you are asleep or awake.

Trusted throughout the Southeast

Chief Electric LLC is trusted throughout the southeast and has offices located in Atlanta, Birmingham and Nashville.

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Fire Alarm Systems

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