atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Security, Alarms and Paging What is the point of having a fire panel vs using the alarm to report fires in a building?

If there where ever a fire with property damage or worse yet loss of life and it came back to you having improperly installed the wrong system or improperly installed the right system you could / should be held liable .

I had to certify to my insurance company that I didn't install fire alarms . what does your insurance company say about you doing that sort of work ?

Electrical contractors here saw their premiums increase when the insurance companies saw that they install the regular residential smoke/O2 alarms. There is too much liability in just doing that these days.

-Hal

The technology is essentially the same. Fire Panels will be UL listed for Fire whereas Burglary panels may not be UL listed for fire but may be UL listed for Burglary. Fire panels are designed to work with all the initiating points and indicating devices found in commercial systems. Fire Panels have approvals and listings for use as fire initiating signalling devices. Around here, all fire panels are connected to a telephone line.

Burglary systems may have the programming for fire initiating devices, but will have limited selections for the types as well as one or maybe two types of alerting methods. Burglary panels usually will be listed only as Burglary.

As stated earlier, your local AHJ will tell you if a panel will meet code. There is no charge for that. Getting several chapters of NFPA 72 code comes with a charge.

Rcaman