Conventional Fire Alarm Systems

Conventional fire alarm systems consist of manual call points, fire detectors, sounders, beacons, and other devices grouped into zones. Each zone is a single wiring circuit which represents a physical area within a building. Communication between devices and the control panel is limited and typically only has three states: standby, fault, and fire. Conventional panels can only narrow down the location of a possible fire or fault as being somewhere within one or more zones. These fire alarm systems usually have very basic options for expansion, such as repeater panels which mimic the display and controls of the main panel and relay connections to link for example with security alarm systems. Being the oldest and simplest technology it is certainly still reliable. Conventional systems are usually much cheaper than Addressable systems.