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Installation Guide SMX-AUS
Fire Alarm & Emergency Communication System Limitations
While a life safety system may lower insurance rates, it is not a substitute for life and property insurance!
An automatic fire alarm system—typically made up of smoke detectors, heat detectors, manual call points, audible warning devices, and a fire alarm control panel
(FACP) with remote notification capability—can provide early warning of a developing fire. Such a system, however, does not assure protection against property damage
or loss of life resulting from a fire.
An emergency communication system—typically made up of an automatic fire alarm system (as described above) and a life safety communication system that may
include an autonomous control unit (ACU), local operating console (LOC), voice communication, and other various interoperable communication methods—can
broadcast a mass notification message. Such a system, however, does not assure protection against property damage or loss of life resulting from a fire or life safety event.
The Manufacturer recommends that smoke and/or heat detectors be located throughout a protected premises following the recommendations of the current edition
of the Fire Protection Association Australia recommendations, State and local codes, and the recommendations contained in the Guide for Proper Use of System
Smoke Detectors, which is made available at no charge to all installing dealers. This document can be found at http:// www.systemsensor.com/appguides/. While fire
alarm systems are designed to provide early warning against fire, they do not guarantee warning or protection against fire. A fire alarm system may not provide timely
or adequate warning, or simply may not function, for a variety of reasons:
Smoke detectors may not sense fire where smoke cannot reach the detectors such as in chimneys, in or behind walls, on roofs, or on the other side of closed doors.
Smoke detectors also may not sense a fire on another level or floor of a building. A second-floor detector, for example, may not sense a first-floor or basement fire.
Particles of combustion or "smoke" from a developing fire may not reach the sensing chambers of smoke detectors because:
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Barriers such as closed or partially closed doors, walls, chimneys, even wet or humid areas may inhibit particle or smoke flow.
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Smoke particles may become "cold," stratify, and not reach the ceiling or upper walls where detectors are located.
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Smoke particles may be blown away from detectors by air outlets, such as air conditioning vents.
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Smoke particles may be drawn into air returns before reaching the detector.
The amount of "smoke" present may be insufficient to alarm smoke detectors. Smoke detectors are designed to alarm at various levels of smoke density. If such density
levels are not created by a developing fire at the location of detectors, the detectors will not go into alarm.
Smoke detectors, even when working properly, have sensing limitations. Detectors that have photoelectronic sensing chambers tend to detect smoldering fires better
than flaming fires, which have little visible smoke. Detectors that have ionizing-type sensing chambers tend to detect fast-flaming fires better than smoldering fires.
Because fires develop in different ways and are often unpredictable in their growth, neither type of detector is necessarily best and a given type of detector may not
pro- vide adequate warning of a fire.
Smoke detectors cannot be expected to provide adequate warning of fires caused by arson, children playing with matches (especially in bedrooms), smoking in bed,
and violent explosions (caused by escaping gas, improper storage of flammable materials, etc.).
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NS-MN-0030 / 11.2020
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