Radio / Wireless Fire Alarm Systems Benefits
Radio
or Wireless Fire Alarm Systems first became available in the early 80’s.
In these days the early systems began to gain a poor reputation for reliability,
mainly related to the radio transmissions and battery life of the
devices. However over time the technology involved in these systems has
steadily advanced to where we are today. Today’s Radio or Wireless Fire
Alarm Systems are light years ahead of their early 80’s ancestors.
Interestingly the advance in technology with the radio fire alarm systems has
occurred as a bi-product of major advances in technology in the computer,
battery and mobile phone industries. Radio Fire Alarm System designers
and engineers have embraced and harnessed this technology to create a new
generation of radio fire alarm systems that are much more sophisticated in
terms of performance, fault monitoring and reliability. These new systems
are fully compliant to BS5839 and EN54 and are fully monitored.
One
of the main benefits of Radio Fire Alarm Systems is that they reduce the needs
to run cables to each individual device on the fire alarm system. Modern
radio fire alarm systems will only need cables to be installed to the control
and signal booster panel positions to provide a mains supply. This
benefit of radio fire alarm systems means that have been ideally suited to
listed type buildings. It allows the installation of a fully functioning
fire alarm system within the building while not ‘running’ cables where it is
impractical to do so. Examples of installations of this type are in
Windsor Castle and The Ritz Hotel, both of which have radio fire alarm systems
installed. In some instances conservation bodies would also prohibit the
installation of cables within protected buildings and radio fire alarm systems
may be the only solution to allow the building to comply with current
regulations and standards.
Another
huge benefit of radio / wireless fire alarm systems is the
vastly reduced installation times. As each device is battery powered and
does not require a cable to connect it to the fire alarm system, a single
device could be installed in a room in around 30 minutes. A hard wired
alternative system would in comparison take weeks or months to install, greatly
increasing the installation time and the amount of disruption within the
building. In a hotel for example installing a ‘hard wired’ type system
would take months to install. It may be more cost effective to install a
radio fire alarm system when the amount of ‘down-time’ is taken into account
i.e. the hotel may lose much more revenue in shutting areas of the building
while the installation of a fire alarm system is taking place.
Due
to the flexibility and ease of installation, radio fire alarm systems are also
being used as temporary systems. Some building companies for example use
radio fire alarm systems on sites where fire detection is required whilst
building work is on going. These systems can be installed as the building
work commences and be used on the project until the project is finished.
The system can then be simply taken down ready to be used on their next
project. The benefit of flexibility can also seen when using radio fire
alarm systems on projects with phased construction works. The devices can
be simply added and removed as work is on going without having to add and
remove cables and therefore speeding up the construction process.
The
increase in reliability of Radio Fire Alarm Systems is now a huge
benefit. Radio Fire Alarm Systems have now been allocated a dedicated
communication frequency to use. In the past one problem with radio fire
alarm systems was that they were using similar communication frequencies to
other services, such as the radio communication with taxi companies for
example. This lead to interference with the two systems and false alarms
occurring. However now with the new dedicated frequencies this can no
longer happen and as a result the systems are much more reliable. The
reliability of radio fire alarm systems is also dependent on a successful radio
survey being carried out by a person trained to carry out a radio fire alarm
survey. This is to ensure that the building is suitable for a radio fire
alarm system and also to ascertain where the fire alarm panels and signal
booster panels should be installed.
Advances
in battery technology have enabled radio fire alarm systems to become easier to
manage in terms of maintenance. As the devices on a radio fire alarm
system are all battery powered, there is no escaping the fact that these
batteries will need to be changed. However radio fire alarm manufacturers
are embracing new battery technology to increase the battery life of their
devices. Many radio fire alarm system manufacturers are now using lithium
batteries. These batteries have a much greater life span than the
batteries that were traditionally used and many radio fire alarm manufacturers
are quoting life spans of up to 5 – 7 years for the batteries used within their
system devices.
In
conclusion radio fire alarm systems if correctly surveyed and installed offer
huge advantages over traditional ‘hard-wired’ fire alarm systems.
Offering greater flexibility, reduced installation times and huge leaps forward
in the reliability in the systems over the last 20 years.
