What is a Commercial Fire Alarm System?

What is a Commercial Fire Alarm System?

As one would expect, the primary purpose of fire alarm systems is to detect the presence of fire as early as possible and notify the occupants to evacuate the premises using audible and visual alarm devices. But modern commercial fire alarm systems also function as an intelligent control system that communicates with all the critical building systems to help orchestrate a safe evacuation during a fire event.

While the design of a fire alarm system is dependent on the commercial space’s occupancy classification and local codes mandated by the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ), all commercial fire alarm systems, at a minimum, have a Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP), initiating devices and system monitoring done by an approved monitoring center. Many commercial fire alarm systems also have notification devices, emergency control function interfaces and remote annunciators.

This eBook reviews each of these core components and explain how they operate together:

• Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP)
• Initiating devices (e.g., smoke detectors, heat detectors, CO detectors, manual pull stations and more)
• Monitoring center (also called "Central Supervising Station" or "Central Station")
• Notification devices (e.g., strobes, horn strobes, speakers and speaker strobes)
• Emergency control function interfaces for connecting the fire alarm system to elevator system, fire doors, door access control system and HVAC system
• Remote annunciators

Download the eBook today!