FastConvert, the conventional-to-addressable zone converter from C-TEC, has been used to upgrade the life safety system at North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, after the installer compared it with three alternative upgrade routes.
The school had initially considered a complete replacement of its fire system. Following a site survey, specialist electrical company W R Fire & Security identified the potential to enhance the existing conventional system by converting it to an addressable system using FastConvert instead.
Three upgrade routes weighed
Before opting for FastConvert, the project team assessed three other options:
- A new conventional panel. This would have allowed the zones to be separated out and additional zones created, but it would have required extra cabling and left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- A full re-cable. This was ruled out on budget grounds, as it would have added an estimated £10,000 in materials and additional labour, along with far greater disruption and a longer installation timescale.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops. This would have added around a week to the installation for two engineers, plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000 to £4,000.
According to C-TEC, FastConvert was the only option that avoided all three drawbacks at once: it reuses the existing wiring, delivers a genuine loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, and does so without the additional cost, labour or disruption.
From radials to a two-loop panel
By reusing the legacy system's wiring, FastConvert converted the school's conventional system into an open-protocol CAST addressable system. The resulting system is described as capable of lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and as able to accommodate C-TEC's award-winning CAST-PRO false alarm resistant combined fire detection and alarm devices. In this installation, two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
Installer's view
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was impressed with FastConvert and considered it extremely innovative in terms of what it can do. He set the outcome against a full re-wire, which he said would have added around £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops, which would have cost an extra £3,000 to £4,000 plus a week's extra labour for two engineers. In that comparison he described FastConvert as the clear winner, saying it massively reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs and saved approximately £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the company also liked the new CAST-PRO devices and felt they were far superior to other manufacturers' products because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, so separate sounder bases are not needed.