The 300 year old church is built entirely of wood, putting it at high risk for fires. Its current fire protection system was outdated, and an updated system was necessary for the church to remain in compliance with local fire codes. The new system would have to be easily operated by the church personnel to avoid false activations caused by smoke from candles used during church services.
Working closely with the construction engineering firms electrical design team and the installing contractor, the Security Supply team had to determine how to best provide a fire code compliant system that can be easily operated. Working with the installing contractor we had to determine how to approach the project and successfully address the owners and designers needs and the code requirements. Reviewing the designers approved plans which called for sprinkler monitoring, HVAC shutdown, smoke detection (spot, duct, and beam), and notification. State codes required a radio box which was integrated into the system.
Security Supply needed to get the engineer to allow us to use Advanced equipment. Advanced was chosen for the project due to the engineers requirement that church staff have an easily accessible method of bypassing the beam smoke detection in the church main area while still complying with State codes that restrict unlicensed personnel from accessing the Fire Alarm panel. The advanced programming functionality offered by the Advanced product line as well as the remote inputs on the annunciator meant providing this functionality would be easy. Security Supply had to ensure we accounted for all the functionality shown on the engineered drawings.
The Security Supply team working closely to with the installing contractors completed the project on time providing a intelligent fire system that met and exceeded the needs of the Customer. Church sanctuary is protected with beam smoke detection that is virtually unnoticeable for minimal aesthetic impact on the historic building, fully compliant, municipally connected fire alarm system. Properly installed/calibrated beam smoke detection resulted in the fact that the beam detector bypasses are not even used, as smoke from candles burned during services will not generate enough smoke to activate a properly calibrated detector.
