What Is The Difference Between Class A And Class B Fire Alarm Systems?

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A fire alarm is a critical component of a fire protection system. A malfunctioning fire alarm can indicate falsely that there is a fire somewhere in the building. But smart fire alarm UK provides the best smart alarms for your business. Fire alarms are generally classified as Class A or B, depending on the intended usage of the alarms. A class A fire alarm is a type of smoke detector which uses ionization. It can also be referred to as \"hard-wired\" detectors. There is a battery backup in the unit which allows it to detect the presence of fire, even in the case of a power outage. A class B fire alarm uses photoelectric sensing technology, i.e., it uses light to trigger a sensor. But there are other major differences that the majority of the people don’t know. Keep reading to find out!

Class B Fire Alarm Systems Class B uses a fire alarm control unit (FACU), which can transmit signals directly to the detectors. Each detector is hard-wired to the FACU and does not use a separate wire loop at all. Therefore, if the circuit fails or is broken in any way, the detectors will no longer receive fire alarm signals from the panel. Class B fire alarm uses only one path to the panel. As soon as one wire on the loop is broken, everything on the loop stops working. A fire would go undetected in this case.

Class B Fire Alarm Systems It has a single path from the fire alarm controller to all devices. If one device fails or is disconnected from the network, the fire alarm fails and so do the remaining devices on the network. A class B detection system would be cheaper to install than a class A system because there is no need for extra wiring required in class A systems. Class A Fire Systems Class A wiring schemes of fire alarm systems are designed to protect the redundant return path. The redundant path is normally routed through the building in a separate route.

Class A wiring requires supervised monitoring by a battery-powered device called a supervision module circuit. Class A fire alarm loop wiring is expensive and is used only in buildings that are wired for communication or security services. Most offices and mid-to-high rise commercial buildings use a Class B wiring method, which was designed to meet the total building protection requirements while using the least amount of wire and conduit. Bottom Line Class B wiring schemes are considered less reliable, but cost less to install. They also take up less space by having the battery and unit in the same cabinet.

However, Class B wiring schemes only protect one redundancy path by connecting the unit circuits to the primary power. By using two separate unsupervised Class B loops, the fire alarm panel will automatically switch to alternative power. The first one is the original Class A loop, and the second one back-feeds on a separate pair of wires to make the second Class B loop. If a failure occurs that interferes with either of these mechanisms, only one redundant Class B power is affected and circuits are protected.