Team up with a fire alarm company, do the labor let them do the tech side of it.
If/when you team up with a fire alarm company, please make VERY SURE you understand what the responsibilities of each party are. We work with a lot of electrical contractors, and while a few are easy, most are not. When we sell you "parts & smarts", we are NOT selling you onsite technical support. We've started burying technical support time in our quotes because it's easier than listening to EC's complain about the extra charges that are clearly outlined in our quotes. We give you drawings that show the device, it's address or settings, and the wiring diagrams for the field equipment. You mount the cans for the fire alarm guts, and we'll put in the guts and terminate the field wiring in the can. You mount the field devices. You must make sure that there are no opens, grounds, or shorts on the field wiring. If the circuit comes with an end of line resistor, you must make sure you can see it at the panel location. And for crying out loud, don't call us to do our work until you've done all of yours. We want to make one trip to do our terminations. Also, I cannot count the number of calls I get that could have been answered if the electrician had simply taken a half hour to study the drawings, and I can absolutely tell whether or not they have. Sometimes things may not be clear on my drawings, and I don't mind working that out with the electrician but at least look at them first! Sorry, rant over.
