georgeswe
Senior Member
- Location
- The Republic of Southern California
Could anyone please give me the code number that would talk about if a fire alarm panel and a fire alarm bell can share the same circuit.
fire alarm panel and fire bell on same circuit
- Thread starter georgeswe
- Start date
- Status
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Can you be a little more specific? I would normally assume that a fire alarm bell would be driven by a fire alarm panel. Did you mean "Can I run the branch circuit supplying the fire alarm panel and the power limited notification appliance circuit for the fire alarm bell in the same conduit/cable tray/other raceway?" In that case the answer is "no", unless you provide a barrier (like a partitioned cable tray).
georgeswe
Senior Member
- Location
- The Republic of Southern California
Typically we run a dedicated circuit in its own conduit to feed the ac power to.the fire alarm panel In the past we have also used that circuit feed the sprinkler flow to the fire bell (both are fed with 120 v. Usually there is a low voltage connection to the flow switch for the fire monitoring but that is installed in its own conduit
It is a common practice, I'm not sitting at my desk, but I believe an inspector may read dedicated circuit for the FACP and infer that the bell is not the panel but an accessory or sprinkler device. (lame interpretation IMO)
Job specs and local amendments to 72 aside, that's a very common practice. Some local fd's require it to be on the same circuit. One requires it to be dedicated.
Job specs and local amendments to 72 aside, that's a very common practice. Some local fd's require it to be on the same circuit. One requires it to be dedicated.
Strathead
Senior Member
- Location
- Ocala, Florida, USA
- Occupation
- Electrician/Estimator/Project Manager/Superintendent
The requirements for the power supply of a fire alarm system and its componentsa are detailed in chapter 4 of NFPA 72. IMO the fire sprinkler bell is part of the fire alarm system and as such can be fed from the same circuit as the FACP. This would be similar to feeding the NAC power extenders from this circuit.
gadfly56
Senior Member
- Location
- New Jersey
- Occupation
- Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
The sprinkler bell is not supervised or powered by the fire alarm control panel. I'm away from the office and don't have the 2008 edition of the NEC, but there is a section on dedicated power for fire alarm panels. My opinion would be that it's not the same as feeding NAC power extenders and you would need a separate circuit.
I'm sure that is technically correct, specifically why would you want it to be separate?
It's unsupervised. Seems like supervision is desirable, and there would be many other methods to accomplish that. Sharing the circuit would be the simplest, and they generally draw 200- 300mA at 120vac.
- Status