Project requirement
Bridge Fire and Security works with many education settings to ensure the excellence of both fire and security systems. Much of this work is carried out in the school holidays, to minimise disruption to staff and students and the Summer 2021 break saw us undertake a project to fully replace the fire alarm system a Montem Academy in Slough.
The customer required the old system to be removed and reinstalled during a five-week period during the summer holidays. We completed the entire project, including the issue of all documentation, three days early.
The projected was across four buildings that make up the campus and is a fully networked system that also provides lock down and class change systems.
Project challenges
Most projects throw up challenges along the way and this one was no different with the good old British weather being one of the first! We started the work during the heat wave of late July and our engineers were installing the new cable infrastructure, working in tight, and very hot loft spaces.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a shortage of parts in many industries and ours is no different. We were able to overcome this challenge by working closely with our suppliers ITS and Hockiki.
A key for overcoming challenges with parts is excellent project management. Our installation team was led by Mark Clements who did an amazing job of co-ordinating the works and delivering the project keeping, the customer informed at all times.
Project Specifications
- The North School is protected by a 2 Loop Haes Elan Panel.
- If the North School is in alarm condition on the first event this will release all relays associated with this school (Monitoring Link, Door Release), it will then signal the South Building and the Year 3 Building to evacuate, it however will not operate the relays on the South or Year 3 building with the exception of the Paxton Door Release.
- A North School Fire will operate the sounders in South and Year 3 and will flash a beacon located above the Fire Alarm Panel in Foundation Block.
South School
- The South School is protected by a 4 Loop Haes Elan Panel.
- If the South School is in alarm condition on the first event this will release all relays associated with this school (Monitoring Link, Boiler Shut Down, Fire Shutter Release and Door Release) and the relays within the Year 3 Building, it will then signal the North Building and the Year 3 Building to evacuate it however will not operate the relays on the North building with the exception of the Paxton Door Release.
- A South School Fire will operate the sounders in South and Year 3 and will flash a beacon located above the Fire Alarm Panel in Foundation Block.
Year 3 Building
- The Year 3 building is protected by a 1 Loop Haes Elan Panel.
- If the Year 3 Building is in alarm condition on the first event this will release all relays associated with this school (Door Release) and the South School (Door Release, Monitoring, Boiler Shutdown and Fire Shutters), it will then signal the North School to evacuate it however will not operate the relays on the North School with the exception of the Paxton Door Release.
- A Year 3 Building Fire will operate the sounders in South and North Schools and will flash a beacon located above the Fire Alarm Panel in Foundation Block.
Foundation Building
- The Foundation Building was an existing Fire Alarm System using a 1 Loop Economy MX4000 Panel, this panel was changed for a 1 Loop Haes Elan Panel to allow for it to be Networked to the other buildings upgraded systems.
- If the Foundation Building is in alarm condition on the first event, it will evacuate and release its relays (Monitoring and Door Release) in the Foundation Building and flash a beacon above the panel located in the South School.
South Building Repeater Panel
- A repeater panel has been fitted within the entrance lobby of the South School, this panel mimics the other 4 panels and relays information across (the other panels also do this)
- It is mainly used for point of entry for the Fire Brigade as it’s in an accessible place for those who are unfamiliar with the site layout. This Panel is Zone 1703 Node 3.
- It is known as an active repeater and can be used to silence faults, alarms and reset the system.
System Network
- The Fire Alarm Systems within the South, North, Year 3 and Foundation Buildings are networked together, this means that all messages (fire and fault) on any panel are relayed to all panels, it also means that any panel can be used to silence and reset an alarm/fault condition.
Lockdown
- Montem Academy uses a lockdown system that is a series of yellow call points located across the school that if pressed puts an input onto an i/o board on the Paxton System which in turn puts an input onto the Fire Alarm Systems for 90 seconds, when this happens the Fire Alarm Sounders will operate and sound with a ‘whooping tone’ this tone is used as it has no similarity to a traditional electronic Fire Alarm Sounder and cannot be mistaken as a Fire Evacuation, this sound is heard across the North, South, Year 3 and Foundation Buildings regardless in where the lockdown call point has been activated.
- The South building Fire Alarm system has had a button programmed which can be pressed by the site staff when the lockdown has ended, when pressed this will cause the sounders in North, South, Year 3 and Foundation to make a fast beep sound to signal all clear, again this sound has been used as it cannot be mistaken for a Fire Evacuation nor a lockdown signal. When the button is pressed again the sounders will stop.
Class change
- Both the North and South Buildings are fitted with a Danfoss 841 class change signal timer. When activated by its own program or manually this will sound the sounders via the panels input 9 switch in the school in where it has been activated to pulse on and off for 5 seconds to signal a specific school time activity (as set up by the site staff).
Weekly Test Button (Program Switch 1)
- The North, South and Foundation Building has been set up with a weekly test button when pressed it disables selected relays for the site staff to be able to carry out their weekly test without the need of shutting down the entire site. Relays that will not fire are Fire Shutters, Monitoring and Boiler Shutdowns. Outputs that will switch over are Sounders and door releases. Once the weekly test is done the button will need to be pressed again to switch weekly test mode off.
Free Consultation
Should your educational setting require any upgrades to its fire and security system we offer a free consultation – just fill out this form https://www.bridgefs.co.uk/en-gb/contacts or call 01494 387879