Hey everyone,
A local elementary school which was constructed in 1921 and was expanded in 1953 is being torn down near the end of June or in early July. With that being said, my local school district is auctioning off everything (yes, everything) in the building.
I am bidding on the fire alarm system which consists of Simplex 2903-9101 strobe plates with 2901-9838 horns behind them installed in 1982 during a district wide fire alarm system upgrade (why all the buildings in my district have mostly the same alarms), a variety of Simplex conventional pull stations, and of course the panels, which consist of a Simplex 4005 and possibly a Simplex 4009 NAC Power Extender (in pictures from the auction, it shows FPL going to another beige cabinet on the wall which appears to be a NAC Extender off screen). There is also some old 42xx real old red single bay cabinet which I believe used to be an FA panel but appears to be used as a junction cabinet now which I’d also like to remove.
Bidding closes June 3 and removal is that business week (June 4-June 8th).
I have a few questions about the 4005 and 4009 and if I need to contact the school about this (the school year ends next week; I am already out because I graduated from high school on May 19), because in the terms of the auction I noticed this in the notes (and I have some general 4005 questions as well):
Must coordinate with school to turn off monitoring.
This is referring to the CC DACT card installed on the 4005, but who should I contact to get it turned off? The reason I am confused is because on the panel door, there is a sticker that reads something else. That sticker reads, “Prior to working on this alarm panel, please contact Bath Fire Department at (telephone number redacted) or (telephone number redacted).”
My first question is, who do I contact to get the monitoring turned off? The school district maintenance supervisor (who I know as I’ve interviewed them for the school newspaper by phone before), or do I do what the sticker says and contact Bath Fire Department?
My second question is regarding programming/access level codes on the 4005, which I’m sure is a common question. Unfortunately, Simplex has not been servicing this system as of late as the school has or had a contract for fire alarm maintenance or inspections with a local third party fire alarm inspection company. My concern is when I get the fire alarm system (permitting I win the auction; it is an online auction and there is only one other bid but I am planning to bid a higher amount shortly before the auction ends so that I do win this system), that the third party installer may have changed the programming access codes. The only people who would know these codes are:
[b]1. The school/district maintenance and custodial staff, since they conduct fire drills using the “Manual Evac” feature, which requires either a Level 3 or Level 4 access code to use, or:
- The local fire department (since they supervise all fire drills).[/b]
Again this is only if they changed the access codes when they switched to this third party fire alarm company/installer to a custom access code, which I have no idea whether they did or not until I go in to remove the system and can try inputting access codes. There appears to be no access codes written on the panel door or anything. I do have the default access codes for the 4005, so if that turns out to be the case, I’ll be fine. The reason I want access codes is because I would like to mount the 4005 and 4009 onto my fire alarm board along with some of the alarms I remove from that building and pull stations, etc. and create a demo system of sorts using devices from that school; and to reprogram stuff I need those codes. The 4005 is in great condition and is in almost like-new condition; it appears to be a later generation 4005 but I can’t tell.
Another question I have is regarding proper power down of the system prior to removal, as I’d hate to accidentally fry the panel when trying to remove it. There is a Square D power/service disconnect switch next to the FACP which appears to be tied into it. If I were to find this was indeed the case and power down the system for removal, would I disconnect the batteries on the panel prior to disconnecting AC power by pulling the disconnect to the “OFF” position, or is it the other way around? If there are batteries in the 4009 NAC Extender as well (assuming there is one), would I power it down in the same fashion as the 4005?
If I think of any other questions that didn’t come to mind while I was writing this topic, I’ll post them down below in another post.
Thanks so much! Any help/advice is much appreciated!