Did my school waste money on upgrading replacing the notification appliances

Fire Alarm General Discussion
1

So here’s some context.
My school was built around 2009-2011.
The system consists of a Notifier NFS2-3030 with System Sensor spectalert advance horn strobes and remote strobes.
The smokes are FSP-851s and the pull stations are NBG12LXs (both are inrelavent due to the foucus being the Notification appliances.
In 2021, all of the spectralert advances on the system were replaced with new system sensor SWLs with SPCWL remote speakers on the ceiling, along with some weather proof advances outside and inside. The School was under construction for the past year (almost 2) to covert it to a middle school to a high school. Now they put some what I call questionable devices in with the weatherproof advances inside (now most had there back boxes except for 1 devices (which was a SWK which the rest was SPSWKs). Also there was one hallway in the Heath center for the high school which has a System Sensor P2WL but right near it is a System Sensor SPSCWL speaker strobe. I say the Upgrade was Worth it because they basically have a potential Mass Nothicaton system if they decided to use it. But I think they wasted to much money on the SPSWKs, the one SWK, and the P2WL. Just to note that the Smoke detectors are the same except for the ones in the new areas of the school and the pull stations are also the same. Panel also the same. I don’t know if there retrofit the 3030 with integrated voice (since the original system didn’t have any voice evac) or going to use a separate voice panel.

  • Yes, they did waste money on upgrades
  • No, the upgrade was worth it
  • In the between
0 voters
2

I just think that the installers didn’t know what they’re doing…

1 Like
3

I kinda agree. If I were the installers I would put in System Sensor SRLs replacing the Horn strobes while keeping the SRs and put SPCWLs everywhere, then for the gym and the cafeteria I would Put In SPSRLs. The new areas can have SPSCWLs and if it’s on the wall, SPSRLs with there remote strobe counter part. I would replace the P2RKs with the SPSRKs and replace the SRKs since they have been outside for years. That’s how I would make the system if I was incharge of the upgrade. So they won’t waste as much money as they did.

4

What a freaking waste.

5

I’ve actually seen installations that originally had horn/strobes and switched to voice-evacuation without replacing any other aspects of the system.

Someone else (@weatherdan882002) mentioned a mall that had old horn/strobes and underwent a full system upgrade. Instead of installing speaker/strobes, the horn/strobes were replaced with remote strobes, and the alarm audio was wired into the PA system. Areas not covered by the PA system have speaker/strobes.