Residential Smoke Alarms in an addressable system?

DJDiehl2K · May 17, 2017, 2:46pm

My high school has more variety in its smoke detectors than my own home. It has notifier fsp-851, the addressable version of the ss 2400 (don’t know the model), some other notifier detectors, and for some reason, this: Click for image they have two of these. Yes, smoke alarms. One is missing and the three conductor wiring harness is hanging down. I assume they are using a relay module for the alarms and a monitor module for the panel, but these are only allowed to trigger supervisory alarms. The problem is that these alarms are in the required smoke detector locations (in front of stairwells and outside of fire doors). Now these can’t be supervised, and they won’t work well if one is missing. So, on a scale of illegal to illegal, how illegal is this? Side note - they have expanded the building some and the basement has SpectrAlerts and the new part has advances, and the advances don’t seem to even be synchronized with themselves. I have seen in another hall that the strobes aren’t synchronized. I need to call attention to this, so how can I do that? I know this post sounds ridiculous and if I need to, I can snag a photo of the smoke alarms at a later date.

firefreak57 · May 17, 2017, 4:42pm

Comments2010:

My high school has more variety in its smoke detectors than my own home. It has notifier fsp-851, the addressable version of the ss 2400 (don’t know the model), some other notifier detectors, and for some reason, this: Click for image they have two of these. Yes, smoke alarms. One is missing and the three conductor wiring harness is hanging down. I assume they are using a relay module for the alarms and a monitor module for the panel, but these are only allowed to trigger supervisory alarms. The problem is that these alarms are in the required smoke detector locations (in front of stairwells and outside of fire doors). Now these can’t be supervised, and they won’t work well if one is missing. So, on a scale of illegal to illegal, how illegal is this? Side note - they have expanded the building some and the basement has SpectrAlerts and the new part has advances, and the advances don’t seem to even be synchronized with themselves. I have seen in another hall that the strobes aren’t synchronized. I need to call attention to this, so how can I do that? I know this post sounds ridiculous and if I need to, I can snag a photo of the smoke alarms at a later date.

Just go up front and tell the maintenance staff or the staff in general that you think this is a problem, and perhaps they’ll listen. Advances and classics were never designed to be synced with one another unless using the proper synchronization protocol on the panel or by using an MDL or MDL3R module. Otherwise they’ll act free run.
HOWEVER, there are some workarounds to this. If the building in question was built before 1996, then it will not be required to comply with ADA regulations requiring synchronization. However this applies only to fire alarm systems from before 1996 as well, and because my school runs on a 2001 to 4020 retrofit migration with a 4009 extender to power the old NA’s, I’m not quite sure. My schools before in the state I used to live in did have ADA retrofits at some point in 2010-2011, and to my knowledge of those facilities they did have to synchronize strobes and horns with exemption to the existing NA’s that were left intact and running. All the others though were required to meet said ADA and NFPA as well as standing AHJ requirements. I’m not sure what you’d do in your case though, as the retrofits were all done long before I even went to any of these schools.

DJDiehl2K · May 17, 2017, 5:57pm

firefreak57:

Comments2010:

My high school has more variety in its smoke detectors than my own home. It has notifier fsp-851, the addressable version of the ss 2400 (don’t know the model), some other notifier detectors, and for some reason, this: Click for image they have two of these. Yes, smoke alarms. One is missing and the three conductor wiring harness is hanging down. I assume they are using a relay module for the alarms and a monitor module for the panel, but these are only allowed to trigger supervisory alarms. The problem is that these alarms are in the required smoke detector locations (in front of stairwells and outside of fire doors). Now these can’t be supervised, and they won’t work well if one is missing. So, on a scale of illegal to illegal, how illegal is this? Side note - they have expanded the building some and the basement has SpectrAlerts and the new part has advances, and the advances don’t seem to even be synchronized with themselves. I have seen in another hall that the strobes aren’t synchronized. I need to call attention to this, so how can I do that? I know this post sounds ridiculous and if I need to, I can snag a photo of the smoke alarms at a later date.

Just go up front and tell the maintenance staff or the staff in general that you think this is a problem, and perhaps they’ll listen. Advances and classics were never designed to be synced with one another unless using the proper synchronization protocol on the panel or by using an MDL or MDL3R module. Otherwise they’ll act free run.
HOWEVER, there are some workarounds to this. If the building in question was built before 1996, then it will not be required to comply with ADA regulations requiring synchronization. However this applies only to fire alarm systems from before 1996 as well, and because my school runs on a 2001 to 4020 retrofit migration with a 4009 extender to power the old NA’s, I’m not quite sure. My schools before in the state I used to live in did have ADA retrofits at some point in 2010-2011, and to my knowledge of those facilities they did have to synchronize strobes and horns with exemption to the existing NA’s that were left intact and running. All the others though were required to meet said ADA and NFPA as well as standing AHJ requirements. I’m not sure what you’d do in your case though, as the retrofits were all done long before I even went to any of these schools.

To my knowledge, my school opened in 1996 and had System Sensor MA/SS24ADAs before they were replaced with SpectrAlerts. It’s a Notifier system monitored by Simplex Grinnell (assuming from the sticker on the front entrance door). I would tell maintenance but I think they would think I’m crazy, even though I brought to attention through them a MA/SS with a broken strobe and it got replaced with an Advance. The spectralert classics are synchronized with each other as far as I know. The entire system is crazy. I really don’t want to embarrass myself so is there a way to anonymously bring it to attention?

EpicFireAlarms · May 18, 2017, 1:02am

[quote] I really don't want to embarrass myself so is there a way to anonymously bring it to attention? [/quote]

I know that with my school district you can anonymously file a health and safety complaint via it’s website, but every school/school district has different procedures. If you can’t file a complaint with the district online, then you could always take it to the city or the fire marshal.