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Fire detection systems explained

A fire detection system is designed to detect the presence of fire by monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion. It can be used to notify people to evacuate in the event of a fire or other emergency, to summon emergency aid and to prepare the structure and associated systems to control the spread of fire and smoke. This can be integrated with other systems, such as intrusion and perimeter protection, access control and CCTV.

Fire detection systems fall broadly in to two groups: conventional and intelligent or addressable.

In a typical conventional fire detection system, the intelligence of the system resides solely within the control panel. It receives a trigger signal from an initiating device such as conventional detector or manual call point and in turn, signals the condition to notification devices such as alarm sounders and remote signalling equipment.

Detectors in a conventional system (either in normal healthy or alarm states) are usually connected to the control panel via dedicated circuits and each circuit covers a designated zone or area of the building. Normally, the arrangement of a control panel is based in the set number of zones (eg, 1, 2, 4, 8 etc) and includes two separate sounder circuits.

Intelligent fire detection systems, on the other hand, communicate with each addressable detector (wired in a loop around the building) individually and receives a status report either in normal healthy, alarm, or fault. As each detector has an individual address, it greatly helps the control panel quickly find the exact location of the questionable device, thus zoning may not be necessary.

Detectors in an intelligent system are capable of reporting far more than just fire or fault conditions, but dust contamination on the device as well. When reaching a preset level, it enables a signal to take precautionary maintenance. Sounders may either be conventionally wired or by using addressable sounders, wired upon the loop thereby making considerable savings in terms of cable and labour.

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