I found this box in a maintenance closet used for storage at my school.
It seems to be an older Edwards device. The only marking on it is the “RESET” underneath the hole. I’ve tried to search the internet and I haven’t found anything. Apparently if it is knocked in the wrong way, it activates the fire alarm, so it may be some sort of initiating device. Can anyone identify this or what it is used for?
It wouldn’t surprise me if there was once a button, toggle switch, or key switch mounted in that hole at one time, & perhaps the false alarms come from the leftover bare wires being shorted together from a bump (though given it’s labeled “RESET” it makes no real sense as to why it would activate the system).
Not sure, when I was let into the closet to grab supplies, I was told that it has set off the alarm multiple times before from being hit. There’s no monitor module visible though, unless it’s mounted inside the box? The building has been EST forever, there are some disconnected adaptahorns around.
Well like I said I would have no clue why that would happen if it appears to be solely for resetting something going by the label on it.
Probably.
Oh? Neat. What does it have as its actual current in-service signals then? (& thought about asking somebody with the building about the out-of-service AdaptaHorns? (including both their history/backstory & if they could be salvaged)
It could be a remote reset for some old smoke detectors or duct detectors, very old ones had options for remote resets. If there’s reused wiring it could be that the circuit is technically open in the box but is also closed at the new end of the circuit, when it is bumped it could short the circuit.
Sure, but why would there be wiring that activates the detector in that box if it’s just a reset switch?
The piece of conduit could be going up to a set of detectors and the reset switch is probably in the middle of the loop.
Alright, but again: nothing about that says “activate”, only “reset”.
The current signals are xenon Genesis speaker strobes marked “ALERT” for mass notification. Not sure about the adaptahorns, I wouldn’t even know where to start asking.
Sorry for the low quality photo, it’s cropped.
Oh? Alright, interesting…
Well, whoever owns the building they’re in I guess.
I think its an old FACP.
I don’t know why that would be what it is: nothing about it suggests such.
I doubt it, It’s mounted in a pretty inconvenient spot to be a FACP, and it looks like the only way to open it in through screws. The building has also been pretty large since it opened. This is in a second floor closet in the middle of the building, not really an ideal place to have a control panel.
I’m pretty sure the AHJ mandates or prefers mass notification for schools in my area. All of the schools around have some sort of MNS, most are EST3/4, but some neighboring schools have Notifier systems with mass notification.
No surprise there I guess given how much it’s sadly needed in schools nowdays (though even besides that MNSes are of course capable of alerting occupants to far more than just fire, so there’s that advantage).
My school uses the EST MNS system for fire/severe weather only. The active threat alarm is done by a BluePoint system.
Here’s another photo of a speaker strobe next to two smoke detectors. They are both smoke detectors, neither have the heat detector marking. Presumably there used to be separate heat and smoke detectors or something like that?
Oh? Alright (that might make more sense & be better though since the BluePoint system has dedicated pull stations, unlike with a typical MNS where a message would likely have to be activated by someone at the panel itself, which of course might not be possible).
Very odd…no honest clue as to why there’d be two separate but identical detectors next to each other like that (I once saw a similar setup with a smoke detector & a CO detector near to one another, but the CO detector was on a sounder base, while neither of those detectors are).
I’m not sure about the double detectors. There are still some SIGA-HRS (I think?) heat detectors still installed most likely from the previous system since they worked fine, and probably didn’t need to be replaced. The building is fully sprinklered and only some rooms have this setup. All of the rooms setup like this also have two sets of the speaker strobe and the double detectors.
Huh, very odd indeed…
What? Do you mean to tell me that each room also has a pair of speaker/strobes as well? (even though that wouldn’t be needed)
It’s an odd setup, yes some of the rooms have two speaker strobes and four smoke detectors, but most of the rooms have no smoke detectors (just sprinklers) and one speaker strobe. There doesn’t seem to be any reason for which rooms are overkill, this is the journalism room, but only certain rooms are setup like that.
