PLC as Fire Alarm Panel

Dear All,
This is my first post, so please apologize me if my post belongs to a wrong section.

I live here in the Philippines. To all guru in building fire alarm system, I would like to know if there is any legal limitation to use the PLC (e.g. Panasonic PLC) as fire alarm panel. I am planning to use PLC with battery charger, the 24Vdc back-up battery is estimated of more than 8 hours standby, the fire detectors are basic such as smoke detector connected to PLC as analog input (4-20mA), heat detector connected to PLC as normally open digital input and 24Vdc sounder. Building total area is more than 100 sq. meter (4 story building).

Kindly advise what are the legal prerequisites acceptable by insurance or government compliance if I intent to use PLC as fire alarm panel?

Thank you in advance.

Mark

Welcome to the Fire Panel Forums.

The vast majority of the forum members are in the United States and have little knowledge of codes and standards in other countries.

I did some research on line and in my opinion your proposal to use a PLC as a fire alarm system is ill advised. Fire alarm systems are highly regulated in the U.S. and it looks like there is quite a bit of regulation in the Philippines. The National Fire Protection Association produces standards on how fire alarm systems should be installed, maintained, and tested. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Factory Mutual (FM) provide certifications that fire alarm equipment functions as designed.

In the Philippines there are similar organizations. I found:
Bureau of Product Standards (BPS)
Department of Trade and Industry - Bureau of Philippine Standards 3/F Trade and Industry Building
361 Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City Philippines 1200
http://www.bps.dti.gov.ph/

And I found:
Bureau of Fire Protection
http://bfp.gov.ph/

I took this information from the web site of a company involved with fire protection in the Philippines.
“We design our fire sprinkler systems according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards and Fire Protection Code of the Philippines, and we bring you superior UL-listed and FM-approved fire systems from our foreign partners.”
Palmer-Asia Inc.
33 EDSA Bangkal Makati City
1233 Metro Manila Philippines
http://www.palmer-asia.com/fire-systems.html

I doubt that the Panasonic PLC is listed for fire alarm use by any agency. If you can find that it is then it could be used. However, if the Panasonic PLC is not listed for fire alarm use you would be putting yourself in great legal jeopardy. In case the Panasonic PLC did not properly perform the fire alarm functions you could be held responsible for property damage or loss of life. A wiser decision is to use properly listed fire alarm equipment designed and tested for that function.