Well, at least w/ the advances they can get the signals to be in sync…
even better. Although the MA/SSes were down right spooky doing their unsynced slow whoop, as were 125 PA400Rs sounding at once (both sounds I’ll never forget)
Holy crap! 125 PA400Rs? That must sound like, well, I can’t even imagine it!
There are 125 units in the building, each has a PA400R over the interior enterence. Obviously in the apartment all you’d hear was just the PA400R from your unit and the MA/SSes (the PA400Rs sound 2 seconds before the MA/SSes do) From outside the building they sound almost like one continious sound, kind of like an MIZ (like the one Dan M has). combine that with 30 MA/SSes doing slow whoop out of sync and you’ve got one unforgetable sound.
When WAS that apartment originally built anyway? I’m guessing the 1970s since it used to have Simplex 4040 horns (they were mounted on the 4050-80 light plates until one of the laziest fire alarm installation jobs occured. And I’m betting it originally DIDN’T have any fire alarm horns in the apartment units.
At a new shoppers drug mart near my house,A pull station is blocked by a gate!I’ll get a pic soon
That isn’t bad. That’s just lazy.
yes, in the mid 70s. It’s old alarm set up was like several other apartment building in Middletown, 4040+4050-80s in the hallways, stand alone smokes in each unit (each unit in my old alartment had a Gentex smokes with built in heats). The Newfield Towers, another one of Middletown’s apartment building even had no system smokes in the halls, just a 9 volt First Alert in each hallway as well as in each unit. I was in someone’s apartment once when the system tripped briefly. People were able to hear it fine, as everyone stuck their heads out of their doors and looked around. As per the current fire code in the city, it has Simplex 4903 style speakers/strobes in the hallways and I’d assume speaker strobes in each unit (anything over 10 stories has to have a voice evac system that building is 12, my old apartment was only 4). Now in the Sbona Towers which I could see from my apartment, they have possibily Spectra speakers/strobes which do code-3 whoop and voice in the resident section, ech unit has strobes in it, all synced (I watched them one night durring a false alarm), and 4040+4050-80s in the Senior Center section (I saw one through the door, and heard one over the scanner [I’ll see if I can dig up the recording on my many tapes of calls] )
At a Wegman’s, most of the alarms were Wheelock AS’s and RSS’s. Well, I saw a ceiling mount AS on a wall! Weird! :shock:
that is rather bizarre… :?
They did that to one of the ASs at the Lowe’s near me. They also have a wall-mount spectralert on the ceiling in the bathrooms.
I once saw a Spectralert horn mounted upside-down, and I once saw a Gentex GMS that got painted over completely, and a BG-12 that was open, and I even saw a SpectrAlert hanging by it’s wires! And then in the local hardware store, a heat detector was hanging by it’s wires as well. And I even saw a BG-12 that was activated, and an RSS sideways.
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WTF??? Why did it post twice?
At another one on my former jobs they have wall mount Spectras not only on the walls where you’d expect them but also on the cieling (the ones on the cieling are a mix of strobes and horn/strobes)
The Menards in Fort Dodge, Iowa has that same configuration, except no wall ones, just the ceiling ones.
There is a woodwork shop in a former shoe store I was doing electrical work at (non-alarm) that has a really ghetto setup. I’m fairly sure the owner put the system in himself, and I could tell that it was taken from another building. The panel is a cheap burglar alarm system with couch chevrons and smoke relay wired into the panic zone. The NA’s are reused FS vibratones and simplex relabeled vibratones.
You can tell all the components are used because they’re scratched up and they have paint marks on the sides while the building has never been painted, there’s only drywall in one room. The really scary thing is that there is NO condouit at all, all the components are connected with phone/doorbell wire STAPLED to the walls. I asked the owner about all this and he said that it’s fine bacuse it’s all low voltage so no condouit is needed. :roll: I hope he didn’t install the system to satisfy code requirements, or he’ll be in for a surprise.
Did you call the safety inspector on his sorry ass?
I’d definitely call the fire department (NOT 911 but the normal number) reporting the bad fire alarm system installation. I am going to try and do this because there’s a courthouse I know, it doesn’t have a crappy install job but it has a really old, outdated Simplex fire alarm system with 4050 horns on 4050-80 light plates and Chevron pulls (labeled as Simplex, NOT Couch!). I’d like to see it replaced with a new Simplex 4100U Voice-Evac system with TrueAlerts. The newer courthouse also has a Simplex system, don’t know the panel but it has 4903-series Simplex signals (probably horn/strobes) and dual-action T-bars.
before we start reporting businesses to the fire marshal, let’s remember that NFPA is NOT the law and does NOT have the final say in how a life safety system is installed.
yes, that is a shoddy installation in that shoe store, but based on the occupancy limit, building construction, size, and number of floors; and number of exits, it’s safe to say that a fire alarm system isn’t required there in the first place (using NFPA 101 - Life Safety Code). however, it’s still good practice that a system be installed to meet specs. surface-mounted bell and phone cable isn’t acceptable, and isn’t even thick enough (24 AWG), so yes, fire alarm cable (type FPLR) should be used. any fire alarm cable installed over 7 feet above floor level should be protected by conduit.
however, on the pyramid of occupancy types, small retail merchants like this aren’t too high, because hospitals, healthcare facilities, and large residential buildings pose a more significant hazard, where life safety is a true factor. if a shoe store burns, it’s just a business interrupted. if it’s part of a strip mall, it’s probably sprinklered.
so PLEASE don’t waste the fire marshal’s time with a concern like that. they have more important issues to tend to than a fire alarm system in a building that probably has no more than 12 people in it at a time.
as far as the courthouse, I can say from experience that government buildings in general don’t practice what they preach. too many state buildings in Harrisburg have outdated equipment. the system they have meets the codes for when it was built, and therefore, is allowed to be grandfathered in. again, the local codes for the city have the final say in what should be in there. just because a building is standing doesn’t mean they need a brand new 4100U addressable system, just because we want them to have it. again, the courthouse is probably just a case where the city’s codes don’t require them to upgrade. if the system itself is functional, then it isn’t really a big deal.
NFPA 101 states which types of buildings SHALL have a system, based on all kinds of factors – number of occupants, number of floors, number of means of egress, number of exits, and all kinds of math thereto. NFPA 72 dictates how a system SHALL be installed. But, again, these don’t carry any weight. it’s up to your municipality to spec their codes. they may choose to adopt NFPA, or to customize it to meet their own requirements, and the city’s codes are what shall be followed. NFPA 101 states that new houses SHALL (“must”) have fire sprinklers. it’s not a law – around here, it’s not required in all areas. 30 miles south, across the maryland border, it IS, because these ordinances are easier to pass there (they’re a state, PA is a commonwealth).
who knows, maybe the city has plans to renovate that courthouse in a few years, and is holding off a fire alarm system upgrade until that’s in progress. what’s the big deal?
OK, my mistake. It’s just because my college is upgrading their old fire alarms. At least they do decent install jobs. No really bad ones to report, even though the U-HNH installations might be cheating a bit. 