This self-paced online course covers the requirements for remote station, protected premises and combination fire alarm systems. Protected premises systems operate inside the walls of the property, not transmitting signals to a central alarm point, either on the property or off premises. Remote stations deal with the transmission and receipt of signals at a site not located on the protected premises.

Upon completion you should be able to:

• Explain why fire alarm systems do not control other building functions, such as time clocks and elevator movement
• List the three basic components of a protected premises fire alarm system
• Define key terms, including building fire alarm system, dedicated function fire alarm system, releasing fire alarm system, Initiating device circuit, signaling line circuit, notification appliance circuit, and dedicated leased line
• List typical locations used as a remote station
• Explain the staffing requirements for remote stations
• List the signal precedence for fire alarm system signals

Who Will Benefit

Anyone whose job involves designing, reviewing, evaluating or installing fire protection systems, including: designers, installers, engineers, electrical contractors, technicians, project managers, fire marshals, and architects.

Course Summary

• Protected premises systems are those that exist as a "local" system. In other words, the system is inside the walls of the property, not transmitting signals to a central alarm point, either on the property or off premises.
• Protected premises systems can be interfaced with any other type of fire alarm or fire safety system, such as elevator recall, and can be provided with emergency voice alarm systems for occupant notification.  The level of requirements that have to be met by the protected premises system is determined by reference to other codes and standards, such as the local building code requirements.
• Protected premises fire alarm systems are the basis for other fire alarm systems, such as proprietary or auxiliary systems. The protected premises system is connected to transmission equipment that transmits the signal off premises, or to an in-house alarm point that serves as a constantly attended supervising station. This combination forms the supervising station system.
• Remote station supervisory systems are used when there is no other form of supervising station required by an authority, or desired by the owner. Connections to a remote station tend to be less costly.
• The remote station can be in a number of locations, such as fire departments or community dispatch centers, but have been other locations with constant attendance, such as local answering services. These locations have to be able to dispatch the fire department.
• Staffing and record keeping are outlined in NFPA 72. There must be two operators on duty that can handle calls in the remote station, but one can be assigned other duties.  Records have to be maintained for at least a year, but the remote station will typically keep them longer than a year.
• There are many systems that can be combined with a fire alarm system to achieve specific functions. The most common combination system is probably a combination fire and burglary panel. However, there are other systems which can be combined with a fire alarm system control. For example, a system control unit that is listed for releasing service can serve the function of interconnected fire alarm control units because it can act also as a releasing panel.
• Combination systems can share components and wiring as long as a fault on the non-fire part of the system does not affect the normal function of the fire alarm system. Speakers can be used for non-fire purposes, such as a public address system, as long as they are listed for fire purposes and are captured by the fire alarm system upon emergency actuation.