One of the schools in my district has Wheelock LED3 speaker strobes, Exceder remote strobes, Wheelock remote speakers, Wheelock RSSWP’s and Wheelock ET70WP’S. The school is brand new and opened last year. The system is Silent Knight with Silent Knight pull stations.
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Are they marked ALERT or Fire?
They are marked Fire. There are no speakers marked alert in the building. The other emergency messages (lockdown, severe weather, etc) are played through Rauland speakers.
my high school is replacing the alarm system with a mass notification system they are doing this because we are in tornado alley and last school year (my junior year i will be a senior) there was a EF0 tornado that touched down on the football feild luckly there were no injurys but there was damage to the school. so far there is a outdoor warning siren in the sports complex but I am not sure yet of the NAs
My school district uses Simplex systems in all but one building. The one building that does not have Simplex is an elementary school that was built in 2014 with and addressable Siemens system. Other than that one, the newest elementary school in the district was opened in 1995. All of these elementary schools have been upgraded to simplex 4007es’. In the 1995 school, they left the original notification appliances (simplex 2901-9838’s on 4903-9105 strobe plates) but replaced all of the initiating devices with addressable Simplex devices. In all of the other elementary schools, they upgraded to TrueAlert ES horn strobes. The middle school was opened in 2008 with a Simplex 4100u equipped with voice evac throughout the entire school. The system has been added on to, but is still pretty much the same to this day. The high school was opened in 1952. I have no idea what the original system was, but it was replaced with a Cerberus Pyrotronics system sometime in the 80’s or 90’s. This used rebranded Wheelock devices such as 7002t’s and MT’s. Sometime (probably around the time the middle school was built) they upgraded to a Simplex 4100u. They left the existing notification appliances but replaced the initiating devices with addressable Simplex devices. The system is still the same to this day but they have replaced a few of the old Wheelock devices that have failed over the years. They are currently building an additional elementary school and a new high school to replace the old one. I am curious to see what those will have.
The system in my current school is an addressable notifier system from 2005 or 6
The smokes are: notifier fsp-851’s mounted on 8710lp low profile bases
The pulls are second gen notifier nbg-12lx’s ( some have been replaced by 3rd gens).
The AV’s are a combo of wheelock NS’s and exeeders. There’s also some rss’s and some exeeder remote srobes in the bathrooms and storage closets
The system in my school is a Simplex 4002 with TrueAlarm smokes that were added later, a bunch of Edwards heats, a couple Simplex heats, Simplex 4251-20 and various Edwards pulls. There is also an EST booster panel. Notification appliances are Simplex 2901-9840 horns with 2904-9101 strobes, Simplex 4903s and 4904s, and ceiling mount Edwards Genesis in the recent additions. I’m not sure when this system was installed but the school was built in '75. I could make a whole topic on just this system so that might come soon.
my elementary school had a faraday (10 inch bells and likely chevrons, as well as some unknown detectors) system, with an unknown school bell system featuring 6 and 4 inch edwards adaptabells. it now has a brand new rauland intercom/bell system, and an EST (Genesis horn and voice evac, 270-SPO and older-style SIGA detectors) system.
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Preschool(Also Church)
Panel: Unknown
Pulls: Edwards 270-SPOs
Detectors: None (Residential smoke alarms not connected to the system)
AV’s: SpectrAlert Classics
Elementary School
Panel: EST3
Pulls: SIGA-278s
Detectors: SIGA-PSes and SIGA-HFSes
AV’s: Indoor: Genesis horn/strobes and remote strobes
Outdoor: Integrity horn/strobes, and an old 7002T above one of the doors that’s
disconnected.
Middle School
There used to be an old Edwards system (Likely a 6500) at this school with 892s, they were slowly being replaced with UMMTs on Siemens strobe plates. There was an expansion that included a Siemens/Cerberus Pyrotronics system (Around the time of the merger) system with all Siemens devices. The old parts of the school still had the old Edwards system. In 2019, the Edwards parts were replaced with all Siemens. The older Siemens devices have trouble syncing up with the newer siemens devices.
Panel: I believe a Siemens MXL tied to an XLS or Desigo Fire Safety
Pulls: Siemens HMS-Ds and Cerberus Pyrotronics MSI-10Bs
Detectors: OP921s, HI921s, OOH941s (on ABHW-4S sounder bases in science rooms and one in the main gym) and FP-11s (or HFP-11s)
AV’s: Indoor: ZH-MC-Rs, ZR-MC-Rs, UMMT-MCSes. U-MHU-MCSes, and U-MCSes
Outdoor: AS-75-Rs
High School
Panel: EST3
Pulls: SIGA-278s
Detectors: SIGA2-PSes, SIGA2-HFSes, SIGA-PDs (Some on sounder bases for some reason and some labeled with CO Detector on them), and what I believe are EC-50R beam detectors (Located in the auditorium)
AV’s: Indoor: Genesis horn/strobes (wall and ceiling mount), remote strobes, and remote horns
Outdoor: Integrity horn/strobes (Only outside the annex building, the main building doesn’t
have any AV’s outside.)
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Update - It appears the fire alarm system at my middle school is being replaced! New pulls are NBG-12LXs, and NAs appear to be L-Series Speaker/Strobes and strobes (both wall and ceiling mounted). Panel may be an NFS-320 or NFS2-640 with DVC. Smokes might be of the FSP series…
My elementary school had a Simplex 4007es that replaced a 4002. The system had Simplex addressable initiation devices but they left the old 2901-9838 horns on 4903-9105 strobe plates. They also had portables that had Simplex Truealert horn strobes in them. All signals at that school were set on continuous. My current school has a Simplex 4100u voice evac system. The school was built in 2008 with that system. Throughout the school, there are wall mounted Simplex Truealert speaker strobes. In the classrooms in the original part of the school, there are no signals. This is bad because it extremely hard to tell that the system is going off when the door is closed and students are taking. In the additions, (2009 and 2018) they have ceiling mount Truealert remote strobes in the classrooms and the same speaker strobes in the hallways. They added Truealert horn strobes outside on the 2018 addition. All signals are conventional and the horns outside are set to continuous. Funnily enough, the first time I ever saw this system in action was for a fire drill but I was outside for gym class so I didn’t get to hear the voice evac that time.
My school’s alarms:
Notification Appliances:
- Gentex GX-90S’s in classrooms
- FCI HEF/STW’s in hallways, and large rooms (gym, auditorium, cafeteria, library etc.)
- FCI STW/4F’s in bathrooms
…
Panel(s):- I am not sure what the main panel is, it is inside a locked utility closet. Likely FCI
- An Audiosone voice evac panel in the cafeteria… there are no speaker strobes in the school but me and others have definitely heard a “whoop” sound in the cafeteria during fire drills.
In this case it’s likely that the older Faraday “horn/strobes” (FCI rebranded these) in the cafe and other large rooms are actually speaker/strobes. Faraday used the same housing for both.
My daycare/preschool/church building was built in the 1920’s. I believe it had a pull rod system built into the wall as there are some very suspicious looking cover plates on the walls in the very oldest part of the building where one would most likely be. It has long since been replaced though and they now have an addressable Simplex system with TrueAlerts and Wheelock NS’s and RSS’s.
My high school was built in 1959. It has three buildings and a stadium on campus. Our history goes like this:
- 1959 – ___ High School (9-12) was built
- 1961 – East wing classrooms added to provide space for grades 7 & 8.
- 1962 – Industrial Education Shop and 10 classrooms added
- 1962 – Football Field and Track added behind ___ Elementary
- 1966 – Gymnasium (now the Learning Center), Classrooms and offices added.
- 1967 – West foyer added
- 1974 – High School and Junior High School were connected
- 1980 – Classroom addition
- 1999 – New Gymnasium and Auditorium added
- 2006 – Colton Center added
- 2010 – Classroom renovation-Video Production Studio added
- 2011 – ___ Stadium constructed
- 2012 – Aquatic Center constructed
- 2013 – Baseball/Softball Complex constructed on the ___ Campus
- 2016 – Classroom additions, Commons spaces added, extensive renovation
Not noted in here is the construction of building B in the late 30s. This is the original K-8 school building that was then turned into an elementary school until 2009. In 2009, it was replaced with a new school, and the old building became part of the high school campus.
Main building:
The original systems were all Simplex AC systems. This is the only device left of one of the old systems (disconnected)
In 1995, they replaced every single system in the district and switched to Notifier. The high school was outfitted with an AM-2020 fire alarm system. The smoke detectors were System Sensor 9200 style detectors. These were the only conventional devices on the system as the pull stations are all addressable BGX-101L’s, along with addressable heat and duct detection. The notification appliances of choice in every building are System Sensor MA12/24 horns mount either directly above, or next to a Gentex GXS remote strobe. At my school, the horns are set on Hi/Lo, and the strobes are all 177 candela. Please note that outside, an MA12/24 outdoor model horn was placed at every exit.
When the 1999 areas were built, they decided to use an entirely addressable model: BGX-101L’s and FSI-751’s are the most prominent devices on the system. The alarms utilized are SpectrAlert models. All P2415/75 horn/strobes and S12/24 remote strobes. Every model is 15/75 candela, and horns are on the standard temporal tone. For outdoor alarms, a SpectrAlert horn was installed with a strobe directly adjacent.
In 2007, another addition was conducted that introduced, SpectrAlert advances, FSP-851’s, and NBG-12LX’s! The signaling devices were mostly P2R’s and SR’s, but a handful of PC2W’s were also installed. At this time, many classrooms that had previously not had an alarm got one. Some were added into hallways too. This addition made the fire alarm system quite hectic in the building, because in most areas, in addition to the awful out of sync MA horns, there are also out of sync Advances ringing away in temporal.
In 2016, the last major addition was completed. During this addition, the panel was replaced with an NFS2-3030. The addition used the same devices as the 2007 areas, however all of the 2016 areas are 100% synchronized unlike the rest of the school. This addition also added nine LCD-160 annunciators to the school! Outdoor alarms in these areas are all P2RK’s.
Please note that these are just a few pictures of an extremely complex system.
LRC:
Built in the late 30s, I’m not aware of this systems origins at all; no original components left over. However, in 1995, the system was replaced with a Notifier AFP-400 that still stands today. There is an older Notifier annunciator at one of the exits. Pull stations are BGX-101L’s, smoke detectors are system sensor 9200 system detectors, and notification devices are System Sensor MA12/24 horns on 800hz continues, mounted adjacent to a Gentex, 177 candela, GXS strobe.
Aquatic Center:
Built in 2012, this system is a Notifier NFS2-640 with DVC. Same SLC devices as the other systems from this period. Notification appliances are SPSW’s, SPW’s, and SPSCW’s.
Stadium:
The stadium has an NFS2-3030 system with your typical 2010s Notifier SLC devices. Horn strobes are P2RK’s and strobes are SR’s in restrooms. Upon alarms, the stadium speakers play an evacuation message as well.
Hope everyone found these systems on my schools campus interesting! And in case you are wondering, during scheduled drills, each system is tripped simultaneously.
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Interesting system evolution. (Off topic, but the World Dryer AirForce is cool too)
nice shots with the strobes
That picture with the cage over the MA horn but not the Gentex strobe below it seems odd as it seems like the strobe would be much more fragile than the horn.
Well so a fun fact about this area! Up until 1999, this area was actually two gyms. In 1999, it was converted into a library, and a fourth cafeteria space. This device is in a large, unusual storage closet that at one point would’ve been one of the exits to the old auxiliary gym. This is why those doors are open, and there’s a very old exit sign that doesn’t appear to be functioning anymore. This storage closet also has the original, gym-height ceilings, making it all that’s left of the old gym. At one point, you can tell where covers were over the strobe and pull station, however they were removed over the years. I don’t know why the horn one hasn’t been removed though.
My school has a very interesting old system, but a normal current system:
Old System:
- Panel: Some sort of a 60s Edwards panel
- Pulls: “LOCAL ALARM” 270-SPOs (they are still there)*
- Horns: Vintage gray Adaptahorns (still there)*
New System:
- Panel: Fire-Lite MS-5UD
- Pulls: BG-12s and one lone BG-10
- Detectors: i3s
- Signals: Advances
*- they are now disconnected
That seems kind of risky to leave disconnected pulls on the wall. In a fire, someone may try to pull one of them and nothing will happen.