School Expansion: Voice vs. Horn FA Upgrade?

3/25/2019

A middle school is being expanded by two classrooms and about six small offices and supports spaces. The addition is separated by a fire barrier from the main school, and the existing school has a temporal-3 horn/strobe fire alarm system throughout (and is fully-sprinklered).

Current code requires an emergency voice/alarm communication system for the expansion, which the design team intends to provide.

The question is how to address the interaction between the new voice system and the existing? Is this purely and AHJ call?

Ideally, the school should consider upgrading their entire fire alarm system to voice for a cohesive message and best benefit. However, funding is very tight and we're not confident they'll have the support they need to do a full upgrade at this time.

Posted anonymously by a member for discussion. Discuss this | Submit a Question | Subscribe

2 Comments

PETE

3/25/2019 10:22:32 am

How old is the existing? If it is old enough, you may be able to make the point that you cannot accomplish strobe synchronization using new and old devices. This is mandated in 72, and it's an ADA requirement.

Raul Vasquez

3/25/2019 10:54:17 am

Unless you see two or more in line of sight, sync would not be the greatest issue nor integration. the issue is conflicting evacuation tones and or vocal messages. the old horns may be mechanical steady, march time, California, there could be electro mech, temporal 3 and the voice system could be programmed to play the same through the speakers utilizing a digital sound clip to match, but you cant offer voice evac to one side and not the other

its a federal, state, county and AHJ decision.

with alarms its not necessary to perform a full upgrade unless its mandated for this addition, so the option of expanding to the new areas utilizing a synced A/V power supply triggered by the old system is one valid route. The main point is to have the same notification for evacuation and then look into sync. There are audio clips to match what's existing out there if your panel manufacturer has the means of utilizing them in programming, but for one section to have voice and not the other is not standard. you can prep that portion of the building for the future with speaker strobes and not play a voice evacuation and do play the same evacuation tones used in the other side of the school.

Free Signup

Subscribe and learn something new each day:

Community

Thank You to Our Top
August 2020 Contributors!

1. SK
2. Near Engineer
3. NinaB
4. Brenton
5. Mike

6. Sean
7. Dan Wilder
8. Tim D.
9. Rob B.
10. Jonathan

Your Post

SUBMIT A QUESTION

The Toolkit

Sprinkler Designer or Engineer?

Get all of our tools, including the Sprinkler Database, Friction Loss Calculator, Fire Pump Analyzer and more:

FREE 30-DAY TRIAL

GET THE TOOLKIT

Filters

Exam Prep

2020 PE Prep Guide
(Available Now!)

PE Prep Series
(Available Now!)

2020 PE Prep Series
Current Leaderboard
(Click to enlarge)

PE Problems

Visit July-October for daily Fire Protection PE Exam sample questions.

Solutions are posted the day after posting.

Comment with your solutions, questions or clarifications.

Please note that questions posted are unofficial and in accordance with NCEES rules are intended to be similar to actual exam questions, not actual exam questions themselves.

RSS Feed

Home - About - Blog - Contact - Exam Prep - Store

Copyright © 2020 MeyerFire, LLC
The views, opinions, and information found on this site represent solely the author shown and do not represent the opinions of any other party, nor does the presented material assume responsibility for its use. Fire protection and life safety systems constitute a critical component for public health and safety and you should consult with a licensed professional for proper design and code adherence. Some (not all) outbound links on this website, such as Amazon links, are affiliate-based where we receive a commission for orders placed elsewhere.