Doing more with less

WE’VE ALL heard the phrase “doing more with less”; it seems like a mantra for our times. In our current economic climate we’re expected to deliver more but often with less resources and smaller budgets. Life safety systems, such as fire detection systems, are designed to specific regulations and should never be compromised, but that doesn’t mean to say you can’t reduce your costs.

When trying to look for savings the most obvious first port of call is to opt for cheaper products. But this is a rooky mistake! A cheap – or let’s be kind and call them ‘lower cost’ – fire detection system has been built down to a price rather than up to a high-quality standard. A misconception exists that an alarm device manufactured to the relevant standard is an endorsement of the quality of that device. In theory that would render all alarm devices comparable. 

But conformance only means that it meets the minimum to comply with criteria set down in the standard; this doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is of high quality. In fact, there are some major differences in system quality between manufacturers. Often a manufacturer has just done the bare amount of work needed to make the alarm meet the requirements of the standard.  

But does any of that really matter as long as the system works?  Well yes, because a quality fire detection system is indeed more expensive in terms of capital outlay, but could actually save you time and money, and not just in the long run. There are three key reasons for this which I’m going to cover here.

Time is money

Firstly, let’s take a look at installation. A good quality fire detection system, especially one that has evolved over time, has seen substantial research and development investment incorporating feedback from customers. A sizeable portion of that feedback comes directly from installers and relates to installation practices. A reputable manufacturer will feed that back into product design, making for a system that is quicker and easier to install.  This clearly saves you time and, as the saying goes, time is money!

Good quality control panels, which are at the heart of a commercial fire detection system, have been engineered to be easy to install by incorporating a number of features, from simple 'select and click' programming for engineer configuration through to installer friendly auto-learn, loop detection and on-board scope facilities for ease of commissioning and fault finding. Panels should not only be fully programmable on-site, but also have the ability to be accessed remotely for quick and convenient diagnostics saving you a costly trip to site.

System expansion with quality fire detection systems is also hassle free. Different manufacturers have different approaches, but one of the most effective ways to expand a system with minimal work on your part is by using a panel that allows a peer-to-peer network. Panels that use this can easily expand the system to enable the panel to communicate with any other compatible fire panel, remote terminal or network peripheral. Some Nittan panels require the addition of a network card to facilitate this, but our evolution1 panel even comes complete with integral network card at no additional cost.  

Quality detection systems

Quality fire detection systems also tend to feature innovative individual devices, which you won’t find in ranges at the bottom end of the market. You’d think these would come with a premium price attached but that’s not always the case; some of these could actually save you money.

A smoke sensor with a built-in sounder, for example, saves you the cost of buying two separate products, the sensor and a separate sounder product (base or wall mount sounder). Plus, it’s quicker to install and doesn’t require any additional wiring. Neither does it require a separate device address point. Nittan’s EV-PS Sensor with built in sounder, for example, could save at least 15/20 minutes per point to install when compared to fitting separate sounder products. When you are dealing with a large system, this becomes a significant saving. Of course, this solution has the added bonus of being more aesthetically pleasing.

Fit and forget

So on to the second key point about the time and cost saving benefits of a quality fire detection system, which is reliability. All commercial analogue addressable fire detection systems are based on a transmission protocol to enable the devices and panels on the system to communicate with each other. There are a number of different protocols used by manufacturers and all are most definitely not equal!  

The traditional protocol type commonly used in the fire industry, is square wave pulse based, but this comes with a number of issues including susceptibility to noise and interference plus limited information capacity.  

Nittan’s Evolution fire detection system instead uses a highly flexible Sine Wave, Frequency Shift Key (FSK) protocol.  It has a uniquely high resistance to external noise and allows for substantial amounts of information to be transmitted back to the panel, but without global message collision thanks to the employment of delayed sequential response. There are also minimal transmission errors due to a sophisticated data packet mechanism with automatic check-sum feature.  

A quality protocol will be capable of very high speed transmission and will not be affected by the number of devices on the loop and allow for more inputs / outputs, more controllable features and more type codes for devices.

A quality fire detection system will also use sophisticated detection algorithms, combining extremely reliable fire detection together with a very high degree of protection against unwanted, false or spurious alarms; call them what you will, we all know false alarms are a serious pain point for customers and installers alike. Ultimately false alarms cost you time, money and reputation with repeat call backs eating into your profit margins and unhappy end users doubting the efficacy of your installation. There’s no getting around it, cheap fire detection systems are far more likely to false alarm.

Of course, there are cases when even a quality system has the potential to false alarm.  One of the biggest problems sensors face is steam. Put even a good quality sensor, or indeed a multi sensor – close to a source of steam such as a bathroom and it may false alarm. Investing in a dual optical detector however, will dramatically reduce the risk of false alarm and all the associated costs that go with it.

Dual optical alarm

A dual optical alarm is a single sensor type – optical - which ‘looks’ for smoke using a scattered light beam in the sensing chamber. However, instead of just using the standard Infra Red light, it also employs a second Blue LED to provide a more accurate measurement of particles within the chamber. By calculating the ratio of these light sources, which operate at different wavelengths, the detector can determine the particle size and thus distinguish between smoke and non-combustion products such as steam and dust. This technology is incorporated into Nittan’s Evolution EV-DP sensors.  It reduces false alarms caused by steam, but the detector remains highly sensitive to combustion products to generate an alarm.

Lastly, it may not seem that significant until it’s too late but going down the quality route is far more likely to mean you are provided with a good level of technical support. You should expect dedicated technical support including problem resolution site visits, plus free product training.

So, if you do encounter a problem, it should be quick and easy to address and not delay you. Cheap product generally comes with little or no support. In other words, you’re on your own!

In summary, if we consider the wider concept of system cost and factor in aspects such as installation time, long term reliability and ongoing product support, the decision to choose product from a quality fire detection manufacturer rather than go the “lowest cost” route is actually an easy one to justify. 

Lee James is general manager for product marketing at NIttan Group. For more information, visit www.nittan.co.uk.