Here’s a recap of my college’s fire alarm systems, with pictures! Plus, it is updated to mention the January 2008 system upgrades.
The Student Center building originally had these alarms when built in 1972:
Standard Electric Time Co. 450 horns mounted behind flush-mount light plates. The panel is unknown.
On the left is one of the pull stations. Most of them are the old, round Standard models. They are mounted too high up, so they are being replaced with Faraday Chevrons (non-addressable) on special adapters so they can be mounted at ADA-compliant levels. sOn the far right is a newer Notifier annunciator, and next to it is what appears to be the original system annunciator. I bet it’s disconnected.
The cafeteria has a Simplex 2901-9833 horn (or a Faraday 6020 horn) on a 2903 light plate. Not pictured is another Standard pull underneath (an odd combination).
This SpectrAlert’s in the computer lab, added in the late 1990s/early 2000s. It didn’t replace any older alarms.
In August 2007, some upgrades to the system occured…
What you see is a Faraday U-HNH-MCS horn/strobe installed right onto the old Standard retrofit plate. They put red tape where the light once was. Only three of them are like this, one in the cafeteria (this didn’t replace the 2903+9833 yet), one in the Student Lounge and one in the kitchen, which has a white horn/strobe instead of a red one.
Most of the others wound up like this. They kept the original Standard horns, but replaced the lights with Faraday MTL remote strobes. One still has the original light intact.
There aren’t any “real” smoke detectors in the building, just a mix of Chemtronics metal heat detectors, and some white Edwards heat detectors.
The Science, Technology and Business buildings also had setups like these. But as of June 2008, the S and T buildings have their systems powered by Faraday FireFinder II panels, and the B building has a Fire-Lite MS-4424B panel! The pulls were replaced, and one old signal is still intact in the S building. All the others got replaced with SpaceAge Electronics VA4 horn/strobes. Again, the pulls were mainly the old Standard ones, but the S building had two of them replaced with Faraday Chevrons. The old pulls were mounted too high, so they got replaced with new Chevron pulls and ADA-adapters. And there were also some Chemtronics heat detectors, but they’re getting replaced with System Sensor i3s.
The Humanities and Liberal Arts buildings used to have Simplex 4208 systems with 4051 horns on 4050-80 light plates, 4251-20 T-bar pulls and Chemtronics heat detectors. But they are pretty much long gone by now. Both buildings have the fire alarm systems controlled by a single Faraday MPC-7000 panel in the H building…
The annunciators were also dismantled, and all that’s left are the trim plates and doors.
They also had their old 4208 panels converted into fire alarm terminal cabinets. A close look reveals the holes that used to have the LEDs, buttons and switches on them. This one is in the LA building.
These are the signals in both buildings. SAE VA4 horn/strobes. I gotta say, these are the loudest fire alarms on the whole campus. Many of them are on red trim plates, but this one isn’t, since it appears to be a rush-job installation. It replaced a 4051/4050-80 that survived in that room until January 2007. Most of them have 75 candela strobes, but some have 30 candelas.
The pull stations are Faraday Chevrons, but unlike the ones in all the other buildings that have them, these are addressable. They replaced most of the Simplex 4251-20s (one was simply taken out and didn’t have anything replacing it, and one pull used to be a Standard model).
These are the smoke detectors installed. They are addressable, and are made by Faraday. These are installed at each entrance, and there is one in the Mechanical rooms, and in janitors’ rooms as well. An office in the LA building still has its Chemtronics heat detector intact.
The Field House building also has SAE VA4s for the signals, but the panel is a Faraday MPC-2000. They also installed a Faraday RDC-700 annunciator in place of the old Simplex model.
The pull stations are mainly Simplex 4251-20s, and several of them have Stopper IIs installed over them without the sounders.
The T-bars in the swimming pool were replaced in January 2008, with non-addressable Faraday Chevron pulls, and they had new Stopper IIs installed over them as well! The original pull that used to be there in this pic didn’t have a Stopper II over it.
The old Chemtronics heat detectors are still intact, as well as an Edwards heat detector…
Even though the panel is addressable, the system is set up in a non-addressable manner, like the original 4208 system was.
The Fine Arts building also possibly has an MPC-2000 panel, but the original Simplex annunciator is still intact!
Again, the panel in this building was originally a Simplex 4208.
A picture of one of the original Simplex signals.They are Simplex 4051 horns on 4050-80 light plates (single bulb, and they don’t have “FIRE” on the lens). There were ten of them in this building when I first came to this college, but now there are only three left. The one you see in that picture was replaced in August 2007.
The new signals are, again, SAE VA4s. I nicknamed them “The Screamers” due to their long continuous screech.
Interestingly, the Little Theater had a 4050-80 plate that didn’t have a 4051, but a 2901-9833 horn!
Unfortunately, that’s no longer there. It got replaced in January 2008…
The smoke detectors are a mix of the old Chemtronics heat detectors, some System Sensor 2451TH smokes, and some SS i3 smokes.
These are the smoke models that are currently being used in system upgrades at my college.
The pulls are, again, Simplex 4251-20 T-bars, some of them with Stopper IIs over them, but there is also a non-addressable Faraday Chevron in the main auditorium.
The Administration building has an unknown panel that replaced a Simplex 4208, and the original annunciator is still up there…
The signals are again, mainly SAE “Screamers,” replacing Simplex 4051 horns and 4050-80 light plates, but two of the original 4051s were brought up to code by retrofitting them on Faraday strobe plates!
The strobes on these retrofits are 75 candelas.
The pull stations are Simplex 4251-20 T-bars, and all but one of them have Stopper IIs over them. The smoke detectors include a few Chemtronics heat detectors (mainly in the restrooms), some System Sensor 2451THs…
…and an old ESL smoke detector in one stairwell, obviously part of the original system.
This building also has a halon system…
That’s a Federal Signal Vibratone 450D with a strobe added. It looks new.
The Maintenance building also has two Standard pulls (one with a Stopper II over it) and a Standard 450 horn with a Faraday MTL strobe added to the old retrofit plate.