If you have a 12v smoke detector but have a 24v panel, heres the soultion!

NOTE: THIS ONLY APPLIES FOR 4 WIRE DETECTORS, NOT 2 WIRE! ONLY WITH RESETTABLE POWER.

If you have a 12v smoke detector but have a 24v panel, you can use a 24v to 12v step down converter to get 12v power to the 12v smoke detector. In case you didn’t know.

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Figured I might get a step-down for my 7002T-12…

That’s before I saw the price. Its like 35$ so it was cheaper to get another 7002T at the 24 volt range.

If you are going to use that, I suggest getting a higher current converter for 12v mechanical horn strobes.

I ended up getting a 7002T-24 so i’m fine, definitely contemplated the step down though.

Yeah, they have a bunch on ebay, and amazon.com. They’re pretty convenient though if using a 12v device on a 24v system.

Yes, a converter would work, but you can also use relays if you have any of those on hand. With 4-wire detectors you’d have a relay connected to the smoke detector power output terminals on your panel, which would be controlling the detector’s power from an external power source such as a 9V/12V battery or a 12VDC power supply. The alarm output terminals would be connected to the zone in the normal way. I think there’s a way of doing this with 2-wire detectors as well but I think it’d be much more complicated, too complicated for me to lay out here.

In addition, both methods can be used with alarms too; in terms of using a relay, you’d do the same as above but with a notification appliance in place of the smoke detector. I’ve often done this whenever I’ve wanted to use a non-24VDC alarm with my 24VDC panel, such as a 12VAC Edwards Adaptahorn I have.

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