Existing power to new Ansul fire system

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coachj180

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Its been 8 years since I've dealt with a commercial kitchen and an Ansul fire system . Even then I had prints where the engineer had it laid out for me . A local restaurant that has been there for 35 yrs has been required to put an Ansul system (very basic system ) . I have hood lights , a 208v fryer ,and air makeup I need to have shut off when system activates. I need some suggestions on how to go about this .
 
Yah, shunt trip breakers would be the quick 'n easy way to do it.

If there's an exhaust fan above the hood then sometimes they want that to turn on when the system is activated. I presume to.... suck out smoke/fumes? And if there's any gas appliances under there then sometimes they want to have some sort of gas shut-off valve that shuts when the system goes.

Another way to do it is to run the light, air, fryer, etc. circuits through a contactor with a control loop run through an N.C. contact in the Ansul box.... when the system trips the contact opens and releases the contactor. Sometimes this takes a bit more work cause you need to intercept some circuits, but once you have some control wiring in place, you can get some more flexibility and options for any future equipment they put in.
 
Coach, welcome to the forum! :)

I can help you, as I've done a lot of retrofitting of new systems in existing kitchens.

I can't PM you my phone number. I'll post it here if the Mod Squad okays it. Guys?
 
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ericsherman37 said:
Yah, shunt trip breakers would be the quick 'n easy way to do it.

If there's an exhaust fan above the hood then sometimes they want that to turn on when the system is activated. I presume to.... suck out smoke/fumes? And if there's any gas appliances under there then sometimes they want to have some sort of gas shut-off valve that shuts when the system goes.

Another way to do it is to run the light, air, fryer, etc. circuits through a contactor with a control loop run through an N.C. contact in the Ansul box.... when the system trips the contact opens and releases the contactor. Sometimes this takes a bit more work cause you need to intercept some circuits, but once you have some control wiring in place, you can get some more flexibility and options for any future equipment they put in.
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It's my understanding the purpose of keeping the exhaust fan running is to pull the fire suppression agent up into the riser.
 
The last one I did was a simple system. The fire guy installed a spring loaded valve on the gas line that connects to a box with two micro switches in it by a cable. The micro switches are for the make up air fan and the other is the exhaust fan. If the system is activated the leaver in the box will trip and hit the micro switches while droping the plunger on the gas valve. If the hood system is running at the time it will just cut off the make up air. If the hood system is off and the system is activated it will still turn on the exhaust fan and drop the gas valve.
 
The exhaust fan should not shut off and should autimatically switch on the most commmon way is thermally. The heat producing and gas devices under the hood must shut off (lights are not required to shut off) and the make up air supply should shut off. These are the requirements if they follow the International Mechanical Code.
 
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