The Wilton Mall at Saratoga has gotten an interesting upgrade recently. IDK what alarm panel they had beforehand, but there were these old graphic annunciators that were in entryways to the mall (they had SimplexGrinnell service stickers on them). The pulls were http://www.dan.calvinet.com/FCI_MS-2_2.JPG FCI MS-2s and the signals were http://www.dan.calvinet.com/Wheelock_7002T-24_2.JPG 7002Ts (most stores have their own ADA-compliant alarm system, usually Simplex). Well, when I went there on Wednesday, http://www.dan.calvinet.com/Wilton_Annunciator.JPG this is what the annunciator looked like. It’s a Gamewell-FCI LCD-7100. http://www.dan.calvinet.com/Wilton_Pull.JPG These are the new pull stations they installed (MS-7s), and they installed them exactly where the old ones were, which was somewhat surprising, as a lot of them are 5’ above the floor (probably so little kids don’t pull them). I did not see any LEDs flashing in them, so given that fact, I’d say the new system is a Gamewell-FCI | Honeywell Building Technologies Gamewell-FCI 7100, because if it were an Gamewell-FCI | Honeywell Building Technologies E3, the LEDs in the pulls would flash. Well, as strange as it may seem, even with the new system, the 7002Ts remain! I didn’t see any conduit fittings hinting of new signals and today when I visited, the system was completely normal (the pics are from when i first visited on Wednesday). I’m pretty surprised by this, as 7002Ts are non-ADA and the coverage isn’t very good in some places, especially the food court, which is covered by a single 7002T horn/strobe. Wilton has no visible smokes, but when I was there, people from Sanders Fire & Safety were testing smokes in the duct returns, so the mall does have smokes. IDK if the mall will eventually upgrade the signals or not, but that doesn’t seem likely at this time.
I’m guessing it was not a “full” upgrade, and was simply due to them getting a new fire alarm panel.
The MS-7/BG-12s being mounted high is most likely because the MS-2s probably were. If they really wanted to prevent kids from pulling them, they’d put Stopper II covers over them.
Seeing BG-12s and 7002Ts together reminds me of my city’s main post office (they’re replacing BG-10s.) Usually I’d just see the 7002Ts with 270-SPOs, BG-10s or MS-2/6s!
It’s likely an E3 or a Gamewell-FCI | Honeywell Building Technologies NetSOLO Classic system since the annunciator mentions the node number. The LCD-7100 is compatible with both. My guess is that the system isn’t finished yet and speaker/strobes will replace the 7002T’s sometime in the future.
P.S. the BG-12LX’s LED flashes on a 7100 too. It only has multi-colored functionality on the E3, though.
Well, its “sister mall” Rotterdam Square (exact same design, slightly different building layout), got an upgrade roughly 7 years ago. They too had 7002Ts (I’m not sure if the pulls were MS-2s, or dual-action ADT pulls), but they got upgraded to an EST 3 with Genesis horn/strobes and dual-action EST pulls - all of which were also placed in the exact same spots as the old devices, and there’s another mall in the county (still) undergoing an upgrade and they too are getting an EST system and genesis horn/strobes, so I’m thinking if they do replace the alam signals, they will still be horn/strobes. But again, time will tell.
That’s interesting about the LED. I SWEAR the pulls did not flash (both on Wednesday and yesterday, when the system was normal), so IDK what’s going on with that. I do remember when I worked in another building that had an E3 system, you couldn’t tell the pulls flashed until you were fairly close to them, as the flash was that dull. The mall is undergoing construction in certain areas, so I guess we’ll see what happens when all the construction is done.
I merged your topic with Fire Alarms in Buildings, Fallin.
Home Depot: http://www.silentknight.com/products/SD500PS.html Silent Knight SD500PS Pulls, http://www.silentknight.com/products/5860.html Silent Knight 5860R Annunciator, some sort of addressable Silent Knight panel, wall-mount System Sensor MASS sounder/strobes (1st Gen) near the entrances, and ceiling mounted System Sensor SpectrAlert Classic Horn/Strobes scattered around the store.
Lowe’s
I believe that the Lowe’s closest to me has either the Ademco or RSG metal tbar for an initiating devices and Wheelock AS’s as signals. This store was built right before Wheelock discontinued the AS product line, making this the newest building that I know of to have AS’s installed in it.
The idea is to get the people out. It will not cause significant hearing damage; if it does, then they should be happy that it wasn’t death, because they should have evacuated immediately! Always assume there is a fire.
BTW, not every home depot is set up like that.
The Aspergers’ Association of New England office building in Watertown, MA has a somewhat interesting variety. The panel is a Fire-Lite Sensiscan 2000. The main lobby and the A.A.N.E. office area had Wheelock AS horn/strobes, but one second-floor hall had a Gentex SHG horn/strobe, and near an exit stairway I saw a Wheelock MT-24-LSM horn/strobe. The main lobby had an RSG T-bar pull, the A.A.N.E. office had an FCI MS-6, and under the Wheelock MT was a Notifier BG-12! The smoke detectors included System Sensor 2400s, along with a 1990s-style ESL smoke detector and a System Sensor i3.
The Office Building that I went to in order to get more work experience and help prepare me for living out on my own had a SpectrAlert in the main lobby, the hallway area had a Simplex 4051-4050+85 horn/light on one end and on the other end there was an SAE VA4 horn/strobe. The cafeteria had a Gentex SHG and the bathrooms had SpectrAlert strobes.
This is a topic to post when a building’s fire alarm system is upgraded, or a system is installed.
A local PetSmart has a large Notifier annunciator that is not powered up. Also, the Bosch pull stations have spots behind them on the wall where a larger pull station was (perhaps the NBG-12). So, I’m assuming that the Notifier fire alarm system was switched to a Bosch. There is also a Bosch burglar alarm system installed.
A local Sports Authority has their Simplex fire alarm system upgraded to an EST system. The control panel and pull stations were replaced. The notification appliances were not.
The old B.B. Russell school building in Brockton, MA, prior to its renovation this month (it’s been closed for years, but will be reopened this fall), used to have a REALLY OLD Edwards system from the 1940s or 1950s. IDK if it was coded or not, but I know that prior to the renovations they had no real alarm signals: it was just tied into the intercom system and an alarm tone would sound when the system was activated.
That ancient Edwards system was replaced early this month with a Notifier NFS2-3030 voice-evacuation system with SpectrAlert Advance speaker/strobes, NBG-12LX pulls, FSP-851 smoke detectors on the more conical-shaped bases, and I also saw a backbox where an annunciator will be going (probably either the newer large Notifier annunciators or an FDU-80.)
These are a couple of rather interesting older fire alarm setups I have only seen in a couple of places. Both have Gamewell FlexAlarm systems with Vibratone 450 horns (late 1960s-early 1970s), but this was also sometimes done with other systems too…
Not all of these alarms were like this in this place, but I am not sure why they’d sometimes do this. It does look rather cool, the pull station on the bottom of the vent/grille thingy with the horn inside it. If it’s an audible/visual setup, the remote light would be installed in front of the grille near the top.
This is at the elementary school I went to for grades 1-6. Most of the alarms were installed like this behind gray grilles next to the bells; a standard flush-mount grille for 10-inch bells with both a 6-inch school bell (they never worked here) and the fire alarm horn in the backbox. This is the only place I’ve seen this done; other schools that would have flush-mount bells would put the horn separately next to the bell grille (the horn would be either flush-mounted behind the usual Federal FG grille, or surface-mounted on a trim plate or backbox, or would be on a light or strobe plate.)
A couple of the Vibratone horns broke down and were replaced with Wheelock NH horns, but still flush-mounted…
