Weather Rated Fire Wire??

Hello all,

Has anyone ever installed Fire Alarm Cable between two buildings that is wire-tied to a guy wire??

If yes, then what specification was applied to the wire to make it weather rated as well as fire rated??

I am looking at a project that already has an existing guy wire between buildings that
supports some communication cable. Would just need to strap on a new cable.

I know that I will need some surge/spike protection on each end.

Trenching is not a solution since it is a public street.

All thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Les

Can you put it on fiber?

“Can you put it on fiber?”

Not very likely with conventional Heat Detectors and Horn Strobes.

I’ve only ever done one system where we had to pull an aerial cable between two buildings. It was for a burglar alarm system (not fire) where they had a photoeye in the outbuilding they wanted on the alarm system. We used a two pair telephone service cable similar to this (obviously, not rated for fire alarm use) but did the job…

http://cdn.generalcable.com/getmedia/210f13c3-6964-4d6f-a105-23a8883582d3/G4293

But I was wondering, why not just put in a small conventional panel in the other building and just monitor the panel at the main building? You might be able to get past using a rated cable between the two and solve your issue. Or some of that existing communication cable might even have spares in it you could use to accomplish that. If the buildings are two different separate buildings there would be no reason to evacuate both if a fire occurred in one. Seems kind of an odd situation. Even on sites where there are multiple buildings, the only time I’ve seen detached buildings wired back to another building’s alarm panel is portables in schools. Most “campus” setups each building is independent with the exception of annunciation.

[quote] But I was wondering, why not just put in a small conventional panel in the other building and just monitor the panel at the main building? You might be able to get past using a rated cable between the two and solve your issue. Or some of that existing communication cable might even have spares in it you could use to accomplish that. If the buildings are two different separate buildings there would be no reason to evacuate both if a fire occurred in one. Seems kind of an odd situation. Even on sites where there are multiple buildings, the only time I've seen detached buildings wired back to another building's alarm panel is portables in schools. Most "campus" setups each building is independent with the exception of annunciation. [/quote]

Yes, maybe but it would seem to be a bit overkill for one heat detector loop and a couple of horn/strobes.

Gotcha. Short of contacting a cable manufacturer directly (Coleman, General) I’m not sure if anything like that would exist. I can find direct burial wire but how it would hold up to being exposed to sunlight or being in the “open air” I’m not sure. I know of a couple of places where they have run fire alarm wiring between buildings to monitor sprinkler systems, but those have been industrial sites where they run the cables in overhead trays along side of other control wiring. Not sure what they used but I’m thinking they used the control cabling that they already had on site or was already ran in the trays.

The only other thing I can think of is contact the FM directly and see if they would approve using standard overhead cable for the application. If all you are running is a couple of heat detectors with some notification, and it’s a light hazard environment with no continuous occupancy (storage for example), they might let you get away with using a non-listed cable.

Lambda,

Thanks for the input. Well I have found this:

http://store.nexternal.com/westpenn/aq244-p353.aspx

The only odd thing is that even with the FPL rating it is stranded not solid wire.

Still investigating.

Les

I’ve had the same experience as Lamdba, everything has been direct burial or in overhead trays on industrial sites.

You can use stranded, the NEC allows it. run stranded from surge to surge then put it back on solid.

760.49 NPLFA Circuit Conductors
(C) Conductor Materials. Conductors shall be solid or stranded copper.

as long as it’s rated for fire alarm you’re fine.