Why do Fire Alarm Systems Work That Way?
Fire Alarm Engineers, Installers, Technicians, and Inspectors get Answers from Douglas Krantz's Technician's Corner
Do you know the rules and codes that show what a fire alarm system does? The bottom line rules and codes showing what the fire alarm system does are important, but to fix the fire alarm system, Basic Electronic Skills are needed. On top of the electronic skills, an understanding of the Life Safety Upgrades to the Electronics is required.
Basic Electrical Skills
Basic Electronic Skills are are knowing about DC and AC electricity. Ohms Law, which shows how wire carries electricity, is part of skillset; understanding the difference between electricity flow and signal or power flow is also part of the skillset.
Life Safety Upgrades to the Electronics
The fire alarm system, in addition to the electronics, has the goals of
Supervision (self-testing and letting the building owners immediately know when something's wrong with the system),
Redundancy (if one method fails, another method is standing-by to take over), and
Survivability (even during a fire or other disaster, the system still works).
Blog and Books
Learn about how a fire alarm system works by reading the blogs and articles on the website. Books are also available for greater in-depth understanding of the electronic fire alarm system.
To keep fire alarm systems working, you want to understand how the basic fire alarm system works, and how life-safety requirements affect the design of the system.
Codes and laws, though, only show what a fire alarm system is supposed to do, they really don't show how the system does what it does.
So you can service fire alarm systems better, get the book
Make It Work - Conventional Fire Alarms. The book sorts out how a conventional fire alarm system works to Detect Fires and Sound the Alarm.
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