My home has been lacking working smoke alarms for years. I am a newlywed, and I want to keep me and my wife safe. In addition, we have tenants who often rent the downstairs. I am also a FA enthusiast in a way, and I have decided if I am going to spend money, I am going big.
I just purchased a Fire Lite MS-2 FACP. I am still very new to all this. I understand this is a 2 zone system.
My idea is to have smoke detectors with built-in horn (System Sensor 4wta-b) in each bedroom with horn/strobes in main areas such as hallways, corridors, kitchen, living room, etc.
My question is, how many smoke detectors with built-in sounders can I have per zone? I am thinking each floor will be its own zone. The upstairs has 3 bedrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. The downstairs has 1 bedroom, a living room/kitchen combo, and a garage. As said, I plan to have the smoke detectors with sounders in the bedrooms only.
Good idea choosing to go with a commercial-grade fire detection & alarm system to protect your home: can’t go wrong with with a commercial system if you ask me. Given how large you say your house is however, you might need something a little more capable than an MS-2 (which are also somewhat notorious for not being very well-made). As for the i3 detectors with sounders, that might work, if you use the RRS-MOD reversing relay & synchronization module with them, which, if I’m understanding the data sheet correctly at least, can be used to trigger the sounders on i3 detectors with an external device like a FACP (it also allows silencing the sounders from the panel, which is handy).
That all depends on the panel, & given the MS-2 may not be suited for your application I’m going to wait until that’s decided on before giving an answer.