Should it be illegal to install horns in small rooms the size of a walk in closet?

I’ve seen horn/strobes installed in small one person bathrooms the size of a walk in closet. That can be bad for people’s hearing. It should not be allowed.

Yeah, that’s a good idea. The guy would get scared.

It should just be a strobe in restrooms.

Sometimes it depends on how big the restroom is. If it is REALLY big then maybe there should be a horn in there.

[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=84705 time=1564910211 user_id=18]

Sometimes it depends on how big the restroom is. If it is REALLY big then maybe there should be a horn in there.

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Also if it’s a voice system, a speaker/strobe may be needed in a room even if a horn wouldn’t be, due to intelligibility requirements.

So in other words, if you can’t hear the speaker/strobe from the outside, it has to be put in the room.

I do recall there’s something in the code that states that an alarm cannot exceed a certain dB (I believe it’s 120).
So yes, under certain conditions, an audible device cannot be installed in a small room you described.

But keep in mind that room size only plays a partial role in whether or not a room gets an audible device or not. What if the walk-in closet so happens to be a fire hazard-like heavily populated room? Will someone use it for playing loud music? What if it’s a sound-proof closet where you can’t hear anything except for what’s inside the closet?

You have to keep those considerations in mind when designing a fire alarm system. Yes, it’s obnoxiously loud, but certain conditions warrant its necessity.

I’m just curious though how a walk-in closet could SUDDENLY become a heavily populated room though. :shock:

[quote="Simplex 4051" post_id=84795 time=1565590976 user_id=18]

I’m just curious though how a walk-in closet could SUDDENLY become a heavily populated room though. :shock:

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Maybe it was added on? I’ve seen that a lot, where they add rooms or walls and the alarms are all of a sudden in a small space. In my high school, our tech class was by itself on the second floor of the tech wing, and there used to be a hall beside the class, that went from the front door of the class to the back staircase behind our class. But, they converted that hall for our tech room, and now its an office and a storage room, and each room has it’s own 10" bell. They also added a security siren that goes off with the fire alarm in the class, here’s a vid of this class during a fire drill.

By added on, you mean split from the large room and made into its own walk-in closet? I could see that happening. Not sure if something like that has actually ever happened in a place I have been in. I know that before 1992 in my elementary school, the cafeteria was in the basement before it was moved to an addition. Another renovation that also happened was where the library was had walls built in to create two rooms with one being a normal sized classroom which had a Gentex SHG (the first and only SHG I heard in person) and the other being storage space as well as another large room at the end of the hall getting walls built in making two rooms there with one being a storage room and another being a mini-classroom with had another SHG in it.

Oh, I forgot that some rooms have equipment that tends to be pretty noisy under normal operation. That could be a warrant to put a horn in that particular room to meet the requirements of NFPA.

For example, an electrical room that’s about the size of a walk-in closet has lighting equipment that’s about 80 dB when the lights are turned on for the auditorium (It’s basically a really fancy computerized addressable lighting system that gets really hot). I’d at least recommend a horn strobe in there but for some reason, it’s just a strobe… Not sure why in that case.

[quote=DownsLife+Safety post_id=84855 time=1566191132 user_id=4181]

Oh, I forgot that some rooms have equipment that tends to be pretty noisy under normal operation. That could be a warrant to put a horn in that particular room to meet the requirements of NFPA.

For example, an electrical room that’s about the size of a walk-in closet has lighting equipment that’s about 80 dB when the lights are turned on for the auditorium (It’s basically a really fancy computerized addressable lighting system that gets really hot). I’d at least recommend a horn strobe in there but for some reason, it’s just a strobe… Not sure why in that case.

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A speaker/strobe might be okay. A horn/strobe is too loud for such a small room.

The Belk store at a local mall has a Gentex minihorn horn/strobe inside of the restroom with three stalls located inside on the wall in one of the small stalls. When you walk into that stall the horn/strobe is at ear level with your ear right next to the NA. Yes, minihorns aren’t that loud, but still.

That sounds just as terrifying as the bathroom at a rest stop I went to that had a SpectrAlert Advance not only in the actual bathroom but one in ONE of the stalls. :shock: