My middle school’s fire alarm system is very loud. It’s an EST QuickStart system installed in 2005 and the genesis horn strobes across the building is very loud to the point were you can’t hear anything but them.
If they are used for fire drills, then I think that is sort of the course there then. LOL
Can’t comment other than that because I never heard them in person.
One word, INTEGRITY. Enough said
Any type of mini horns. Usually when we do these systems in apartments, they are everywhere. Usually 3-5 in a hall, and then 1 to 3 in every unit. I recently did an older apartment building (with halls that echoed), that was retrofitted with mini horns set to continuous. They are ear piercing for sure.
I also hate the Spectralert Advances. I was in a building doing repairs once, on an EST 6616 Or 6632, that was retrofitted with Advance horns. I was on the 7th floor replacing a heat detector, one of the older Edwards with the metal base. As I was taking the base off, I accidentally shorted the wires. Now I did have the panel on silent test, but I didn’t realize it only lasted for so long before signals were activated again. So there I was, running down 7 fights of stairs with these loud skull piercing horns going off in continuous to go and silence them. I definitely needed a couple advils after that situation.
[quote=EdwardsFan post_id=81629 time=1536876796 user_id=85]
Any type of mini horns. Usually when we do these systems in apartments, they are everywhere. Usually 3-5 in a hall, and then 1 to 3 in every unit. I recently did an older apartment building (with halls that echoed), that was retrofitted with mini horns set to continuous. They are ear piercing for sure.
I also hate the Spectralert Advances. I was in a building doing repairs once, on an EST 6616 Or 6632, that was retrofitted with Advance horns. I was on the 7th floor replacing a heat detector, one of the older Edwards with the metal base. As I was taking the base off, I accidentally shorted the wires. Now I did have the panel on silent test, but I didn’t realize it only lasted for so long before signals were activated again. So there I was, running down 7 fights of stairs with these loud skull piercing horns going off in continuous to go and silence them. I definitely needed a couple advils after that situation.
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Why is everyone in your area still installing horns in continuous?
The rules are different in Canada than they are in the US so they don’t have to follow the same regulations when it comes to installing them because of different requirements. For example, buildings in Canada I don’t think need strobes and if a building is renovated, I don’t think the system has to be replaced. Also, Canada prefers Edwards a lot more just as the US prefers Simplex.
[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=81669 time=1537218436 user_id=18]
The rules are different in Canada than they are in the US so they don’t have to follow the same regulations when it comes to installing them because of different requirements. For example, buildings in Canada I don’t think need strobes and if a building is renovated, I don’t think the system has to be replaced. Also, Canada prefers Edwards a lot more just as the US prefers Simplex.
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Actually, the US generally prefers Honeywell brands.
I guess it depend on where you are. Because over here, all I see is mostly Simplex horns. Though Honeywell doesn’t make horns so its not a good comparison.
Actually, Honeywell does make horns. They just make them under their System Sensor brand.
Honeywell themselves dont make the horns, they are made/sold by System Sensor, which is a division of Honeywell.
It all depends on acoustics, and for mechanical signals, individual ones can be different as well. The 4051 + 4050-80’s at my high school didn’t sound too bad in the carpeted hallways, but one of the -9838’s in my last middle school (which had cinder block walls and tile floors) gave me a good scare. Most electronic signals don’t produce that initial “pop” like some mechanical horns (especially the -9838 and 34(T) series) do, and therefore seem less startling even if they’re quite loud.
The loudest alarm I’ve ever heard in the wild was the 2901-9806 in the gymnasium of the aforementioned middle school. It drowned out the voice evac coming from the 2902-9711 + 4903-9101 units, and should definitely have been removed. Its low pitch made it sound like a -9838 on steroids, and it was on a non-functional 4050-80.
The school also had both -9838’s and -9806’s on the outside of the building, and the latter were much louder and could be heard from a considerable distance away.
That is probably why in the rear hallway of my high school that the 9838 was EXCRUCIATING then. Not only was it down at head level but said hallway was concrete instead of regular bricks and there was no tile.
Your schools sound interesting. Forgive me if you already did, but did you post them in the “What kind of alarm do you have in work/school?” topic?
Loudest alarm I’ve had to listen to (system in this case) would be a combo of several 2WTA-Bs mixed in with a bunch of P2Rs on high volume temporal. Too much sound for a very narrow hallway.
Now, I haven’t heard one in person, but I know some fire suppression systems use a pneumatic driven siren instead of or along with something that uses electricity. I’m assuming those are rather loud.
[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=81669 time=1537218436 user_id=18]
The rules are different in Canada than they are in the US so they don't have to follow the same regulations when it comes to installing them because of different requirements. For example, buildings in Canada I don't think need strobes and if a building is renovated, I don't think the system has to be replaced. Also, Canada prefers Edwards a lot more just as the US prefers Simplex.
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Yeah but Canada has required Temporal 3 coding about as long as the US has. Strobes didn’t become mandatory until a few years ago, and most systems until then used bells. Most legacy systems have also been switched to Temporal 3 via panel coding since they don’t have any strobes to worry about.
Yup, as you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoT_kj9NBrc The air siren completely drowns out the horns and bells in the room.
[quote=MayerFire post_id=81688 time=1537331471 user_id=3566]
[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=81669 time=1537218436 user_id=18]
The rules are different in Canada than they are in the US so they don't have to follow the same regulations when it comes to installing them because of different requirements. For example, buildings in Canada I don't think need strobes and if a building is renovated, I don't think the system has to be replaced. Also, Canada prefers Edwards a lot more just as the US prefers Simplex.
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Yeah but Canada has required Temporal 3 coding about as long as the US has. Strobes didn’t become mandatory until a few years ago, and most systems until then used bells. Most legacy systems have also been switched to Temporal 3 via panel coding since they don’t have any strobes to worry about.
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Many systems here still use bells, and strobes aren’t mandatory here unless it’s classified under the Building Code. From my experience, some systems are still set to different codes because we can’t change them (most being Mircom FX-2000s, and we’re locked out of programming). I think others may have been grandfathered in, because usually when systems are replaced here it’s usually just the fire panel (unless the AHJ wants an entire building upgrade or something like that). But it’s definitely something I write in my deficiencies still if I notice the panel is newer. I was just at a building built in 2010 with a speaker system, and the coding was set to march time!
[quote=EdwardsFan post_id=81697 time=1537410057 user_id=85]
I was just at a building built in 2010 with a speaker system, and the coding was set to march time!
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I believe voice evac systems are not required to do Temporal 3. I’ve seen many such systems in the US which use different tones like Slow Whoop.
[quote=MayerFire post_id=81700 time=1537414898 user_id=3566]
[quote=EdwardsFan post_id=81697 time=1537410057 user_id=85]
I was just at a building built in 2010 with a speaker system, and the coding was set to march time!
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I believe voice evac systems are not required to do Temporal 3. I’ve seen many such systems in the US which use different tones like Slow Whoop.
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Virtually every voice-evac system I’ve heard in real life does either a Code-3 tone or Slow Whoop, unless if it’s in a hospital where it’ll just do chiming sounds. I remember in the emergency wing at the hospital I had a temporary internship at, they did a Code-3 version of the older Simplex chime tone! (The emergency wing had its’ own Simplex 4100 panel; the entire hospital building had a network of different Simplex 4100-series panels, a 4010 and maybe a 4020 in the mix, even a couple of voice-evac 2001s!) And with a couple of exceptions, nearly every voice-evac system I’d hear in real life would be a Simplex system!
Going back on topic, in that hospital the chiming tones were a bit loud, but it could also be attributed to how the non-renovated wings used old 2902-9711 LifeAlarm speakers (rebranded Atlas Sounder speakers), which can be fairly loud, and the alarm tones and messages would also sound over the intercom speakers so they could be heard clearly throughout the building. But a few areas of his hospital actually used horns instead of speakers; the radiation therapy wing had Space Age 2DCD+AV32 horn/lights (or maybe they were Simplex 2901-9806s, since there were Simplex pulls and detectors in that wing) and a couple other wings on upper floors had Simplex TrueAlert horn/strobes. I remember during an audible fire alarm test, I was in a stairwell and I could hear TrueAlerts faintly blaring in Continuous, and I wasn’t even near any of the floors with them installed, not to mention they were on the other side of the building from the stairwell I was in!
But from what I heard, the multi-candela 4906 TrueAlert horn/strobes (non-ES) are actually a bit louder than the 4903 TrueAlert horn/strobes, about as loud as a System Sensor SpectrAlert Advance or Wheelock AS on high volume. Ouch!
[quote=MayerFire post_id=81700 time=1537414898 user_id=3566]
[quote=EdwardsFan post_id=81697 time=1537410057 user_id=85]
I was just at a building built in 2010 with a speaker system, and the coding was set to march time!
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I believe voice evac systems are not required to do Temporal 3. I’ve seen many such systems in the US which use different tones like Slow Whoop.
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But it’s not technically a voice evac system. I have yet to come across one, what we have mainly in canada is speaker systems with paging function. It won’t play an automatic message, it just sounds an electronic tone over the speakers. Here is the video of me testing said system:
[YouTube]fHKOCBgOTjg[/YouTube]
That actually sounds a lot like a klaxon for a nuclear event about to happen. LOL
I think that the EST Genesis horn/strobes on High Volume along with a bunch of old UMMT’s set on horn (My high school’s system) is a very deafening system!