MAintaining FA system

[Alwayslearningelec]

Hello,

I m bidding a job in an existing building that wants the est. fa system maintained until the new is up. What are the different scenarios possible to obtain this... fire watch etc.

Thanks very much

 

[dhalleron]

I've done this before for an addressable 40 story fire alarm system replacement:

We built a portable rack to stand in the middle of the room or somewhere out of the way. We moved the existing fire alarm panel to this rack and extended the existing wiring over to the rack.

We then installed the new fire alarm panel in the old location and installed all the cards and power supplies and did some programming.

Sometimes we had to run additional wire up the riser so both panels could take care of different floors on a high rises. On this one job the riser wiring was class A so we used one pair for each system until we were done and then reconnected the Class A riser.

We then disconnected one floor at a time from the old panel, replaced all the devices on that floor using existing wiring and then connected the circuit to the new panel. We then tested all the devices before moving on to another floor.

We replaced this fire alarm system in less than 30 days using this method and kept the system running. The only time anything was offline was for the few hours we were replacing one floor.

 

[Alwayslearningelec]

I've done this before for an addressable 40 story fire alarm system replacement:

We built a portable rack to stand in the middle of the room or somewhere out of the way. We moved the existing fire alarm panel to this rack and extended the existing wiring over to the rack.

We then installed the new fire alarm panel in the old location and installed all the cards and power supplies and did some programming.

Sometimes we had to run additional wire up the riser so both panels could take care of different floors on a high rises. On this one job the riser wiring was class A so we used one pair for each system until we were done and then reconnected the Class A riser.

We then disconnected one floor at a time from the old panel, replaced all the devices on that floor using existing wiring and then connected the circuit to the new panel. We then tested all the devices before moving on to another floor.

We replaced this fire alarm system in less than 30 days using this method and kept the system running. The only time anything was offline was for the few hours we were replacing one floor.

Wow, soun ds likle it went fairly semaless. Thanks a lot.

 

[Alwayslearningelec]

Wow, soun ds likle it went fairly semaless. Thanks a lot.

Must have had a big lunch...can't spell. Thanks for the info!!!!!

 

[MisterCMK]

It depends on the situation, how the existing system is set up, what kind of building, how much programming can be done ahead of time, etc. When replacing an existing system the biggest portion of the project is replacing the head end so you need to get new head end working with existing devices first. Then you can worry about the rest.

 

[cadpoint]

Several things bother me about all this. One is that you didn’t even care to talk to the existing service or the monitor provider that exists, much less the owner!
You don’t even seem to care who’s got the contract for this service or and what their advice is!
That would be my first action to find out what the existing contract on site is.

Depending on the fine State you live in, One can’t do anything or everything for the F/A.

Since you asked about the service requirements, it is my belief that you don’t totally understand the premise and that's the peril of a paper shuffler versus a F/A technician!

 

[Alwayslearningelec]

Several things bother me about all this. One is that you didn?t even care to talk to the existing service or the monitor provider that exists, much less the owner!
You don?t even seem to care who?s got the contract for this service or and what their advice is!
That would be my first action to find out what the existing contract on site is.

Depending on the fine State you live in, One can?t do anything or everything for the F/A.

Since you asked about the service requirements, it is my belief that you don?t totally understand the premise and that's the peril of a paper shuffler versus a F/A technician!

Ahhh inded cadpoint