Fire alarm systems

A Fire alarm system is a combination of a interlinked electric /electronic devices integrated to detect and alert on any incident of fire /smoke immediately on occurrence so that the measures for extinguishing the fire is taken at the earliest possible time to prevent loss of human life / material loss.

Fire alarm systems are mainly of 2 major types namely the conventional and the addressable systems. Some of the major differences are given below for better understanding of the 2 types of FAS.

Parameter	Conventional Systems	Addressable systems
Detectors Identification	Detectors are identified zone wise	Each and every individual detectors /devices have a unique address defined and the faults can be traced easily
Alarm threshold	Alarm threshold levels setting for individual detectors not possible	Different alarm threshold levels can be set individually for each detectors depending on the area of use
Pre alarm warning	Pre alarm warning not available	Pre Alarm warning available which allows to know the problems in advance and helps to take necessary action
Wiring	Wired as separate circuit zone wise	Can be wired in loops
Event log	Basically not in-built	System events are recorded in event log to take reports as per the requirement.
Programming	Simple Programming	Advanced programming options for programming the systems as per the user needs
Configuration	Easy to configure zoned FAS	Complicated to setup

Depending on the need and budget of the users the type of the FAS is selected and installed.