C-TEC's FastConvert conventional-to-addressable zone converter has been used to upgrade the fire detection and alarm system at North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, avoiding the cost and disruption of a full replacement, according to the manufacturer.
The school had initially considered replacing its fire system outright. Following a site survey, specialist electrical contractor W R Fire & Security identified the potential to enhance the existing conventional system instead, converting it to an addressable system using FastConvert.
Three alternatives weighed
According to the account, three upgrade routes were assessed before FastConvert was selected. Installing a new conventional panel would have allowed the zones to be separated out and additional zones created, but it would have required extra cabling and would still have left the school with a conventional system limited to reporting zonal fire and fault information.
A full re-cable of the system was ruled out on budget grounds: it was estimated to add around £10,000 in materials and additional labour, along with greater disruption and a longer installation timescale.
The third option, converting the remaining six zones into loops, would have added roughly a week to the installation for two engineers, plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000 to £4,000.
FastConvert was presented as the only option that avoided all three drawbacks at once, reusing the existing wiring to deliver a genuine loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, without the additional cost, labour or disruption.
What was installed
By using the old system's wiring, the converter upgraded the school's legacy conventional system into an open-protocol CAST addressable system. The resulting installation is described as capable of lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and able to accommodate C-TEC's award-winning CAST-PRO false alarm resistant combined fire detection and alarm devices. To achieve this, two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
Contractor's view
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was impressed with FastConvert and considers it extremely innovative in terms of what it can do. He said that against a full re-wire, which would have added around £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops, which would have cost an extra £3,000 to £4,000 plus a week's extra labour for two engineers, FastConvert was the clear winner, massively reducing installation time, site disruption and labour costs and saving approximately £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the company also likes the new CAST-PRO devices and regards them as far superior to other manufacturers' products, because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, so separate sounder bases are not needed.