C-TEC's FastConvert zone converter has allowed a specialist contractor to upgrade a Stoke-on-Trent primary school's legacy conventional fire detection system to an addressable loop without renewing the existing cabling, trimming an estimated £3,500 from the project.
North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school, had initially considered replacing its fire system outright. Following a site survey, electrical specialist W R Fire & Security recognised the potential to enhance the existing conventional system by converting it to addressable operation using FastConvert instead.
Three upgrade routes assessed
Before settling on the converter, the contractor weighed three alternatives:
- A new conventional panel, which would have allowed zones to be separated and extra zones created, but would have needed additional cabling and left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- A full re-cable, ruled out on budget grounds because it would have added an estimated £10,000 in materials and labour, along with far greater disruption and a longer installation programme.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops, which would have added about a week for two engineers plus extra cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated additional cost of £3,000–£4,000.
FastConvert was the only route that avoided all three drawbacks at once, reusing the existing wiring to deliver a genuine loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, without the extra cost, labour or disruption.
From two radials to one loop
Working over the old system's wiring, the converter turned the school's legacy conventional installation into an open-protocol CAST addressable system. The upgraded system supports lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and can accommodate C-TEC's award-winning CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, which the manufacturer describes as resistant to false alarms. Two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
In practical terms, the school keeps its existing wiring while gaining an addressable, loop-based installation in place of the zonal reporting of its previous conventional panel.
Contractor's view
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was very impressed with FastConvert and considered it extremely innovative in what it can do. Measured against a full rewire that would have added around £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops at an extra £3,000–£4,000 plus a week's labour for two engineers, he called the converter the clear winner, saying it massively reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs and saved roughly £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the contractor also rates the CAST-PRO devices highly and considers them superior to other manufacturers' products, because sounders and VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, so separate sounder bases are not required.