I’m not sure if we ever discussed this in some other topic, but has anyone ever wondered why wall-mounting is even a thing in places like schools, stores, places like that, if there’s ever a possibility of a wall-mounted device being knocked around, obscured, or damaged. I can understand in some places where it isn’t practical to ceiling-mount a device, but there’s no excuse in places like schools where things like basketballs, books, or other things can knock the device, or in stores where shelving units and fixtures could obscure it. You would think that ceiling-mounted devices would alleviate all this, so why do they bother?
By “device,” I am going to assume you mean notification appliances. Don’t get me started on those ceiling-mounted pull stations.
In all seriousness, it could be due to audio/visual coverage. I found a System Sensor | Honeywell Building Technologies document about this from System Sensor. Maybe someone could peruse the document and tell us what they find, because I didn’t find anything of relevance after first glance.
:lol: Honestly there probably is some insane system somewhere that actually has ceiling-mounted pull stations.
I think it just depends on what the installers think will work well. I never ran into a ceiling mount alarm until I was in high school. The old system from before 1992 has SpaceAge Electronics 2DCD horns on AV32 red lamp plates hanging down on the ceiling from conduit. I image the horns they replaced (gonna guess maybe old flush-mount horns) stayed on the wall until they renovated again after 1992, took the flush horns out of the walls and replaced them with 9838 horns on 4903 strobe plates. All of the 2DCD’s except three were removed and one was replaced by a classic SpectrAlert in the lecture hall.
Now all the 2DCDs are gone replaced with Siemens U-MMT horns from new/old stock. Oh and for more fun, I went up there to visit with my old teacher assistant: they put TrueAlert HORN/strobes in the hallway bathrooms and remote strobes in the other bathroom that weren’t in hallways. Strangely the modular building has remote strobe TrueAlerts in their bathrooms.
Imagine a ceiling-mounted Gamewell M69. With the glass rod.
My high school actually has 3 ceiling-mount EST Genesis horn/strobes in the cafeteria (for whatever reason, 2 of them are white, and 1 of them is red). However, they were installed within the first week or so into my senior year, and just some time before that, the 7002T, mounted on a square backbox, at the one end of the cafeteria had since been removed and the backbox that it was on had a cover plate installed on it. Last time I was there (which was years ago), there was still one 7002T, but it’s in what I believe is the kitchen (much to my surprise).
Also, there was this one fire drill video on YouTube at a school that had ceiling-mount SpectrAlert Advances installed (or at least the one seen in that video).
Did that really happen? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.
:lol:
No. 
Green is exercising his unofficial position of Director of Sarcasm.
Lots of reasons. Sometimes walls are easier to rough-in than ceilings, especially if its dry wall. High ceilings, hard ceilings, sloped ceilings, ceilings with no deck, or ceilings already crowded with air registers, lights, projectors, and PA’s are all reasons the wall may be preferred. Really, drop ceilings are about the only place you’d want to deal with installing a ceiling mount device. Especially in a retrofit, which most fire alarms are installed in buildings that existed long before they required any. Devices often get switched from ceiling to wall or visa versa in the field depending on what can be installed the easiest.
The coverage of a ceiling mount device is actually less than a wall mount too, and wall mount was around a long time before ceiling mount. Ever see a ceiling mounted bell? Sound also travels out into the room better when coming off of a wall, compared to being pointed down at the ground.
If anybody is wondering how the ceiling 2DCDs were set up, have a crappy picture.
The circle at the top is supposed to be attached to the ceiling were the mounting devices. The horizontal line is the down rod. The vertical line was the AV32 box and the line at the end was the light plate. The horns on the ceiling were disconnected. Only two which were wall mount worked: the one outside cosmetology and the one in the former assessment center. Both were as loud as Andrew described his in middle school. Maybe even louder since I swear the one in the assessment center made the computer under it rattle.
You mention that drop ceilings are the main place you’d want these things, but the college I did undergrad at retrofitted ceiling-mount units in a dorm that was built in the late 60s with drywall ceilings in most areas. I’ve seen a few malls with ceiling units in areas with drywall as well.
ceiling-mount nas are common in my area in large stores like walmart and target stores. likely used in those stores due to the lack of many walls.
Ceiling mounted NAC devices are faster and cheaper to install vs wall mounted devices, that’s the main reason you will see them used. It only takes 10 min or less to install a ceiling mounted device, that’s from cutting the ceiling tile to snapping in the hanger bar for the electrical box and wiring the unit itself. A wall mount needs to be located so you don’t hit a stud then the wall cut (hope it’s not double walled) insert a cut in box or have an electrician stub up a pipe for it, run the wire down for it and wire the unit up. That about 20 min right there at least. Regardless of the mounting location I give 30 min in my bids for each device. If you have a lot of devices to mount if you can go with the ceiling mounted.
In new construction you hammer a box to a stud with a pipe up before the drywallers come through and its done. run the wire before the ceiling is up and viola. super fast, super cheap, super easy, you aren’t waiting around for a ceiling to be installed and you aren’t working with your head/body looking up, but instead straight ahead at a wall.
Sometimes we run into areas where the walls are all glass too though, so ceiling is the only option. We also run into an issue these days with “fancy” ceilings we can’t use ceiling mount devices on, they’re multi level artistic things.
cl94, was the hallway a drop ceiling or full of access hatches? depends on how they can access it in renovations usually.
If it’s a box with a piece of pipe coming out it I can’t touch it unless I have an electrical license. I have to wait for the electrician to get the box installed for me. Seems like a stupid rule but that’s just how things are where I’m at. Really what I have been told is that I can only use low voltage boxes and brackets and that anything that a electrician uses like metal boxes and EMC I’m supposed to get an electrician for but we all bend the rules a little every now and then.
::cough:: schools! ::cough::
Nope. Drywall, not a bunch of access hatches. Strangest thing. This picture I found doesn’t show the devices (Genesis speaker/strobes), but it’s evident that the ceiling isn’t drop: LLCVega - Navigate the LLC Formation Maze .
Interestingly, another complex at the school with drop ceilings got wall speaker/strobes during a retrofit at the same time.