Using Reason to Realize More Residential Fire Revenues
While the majority of homes have smoke detectors, most are standalone devices and only 15% have working carbon monoxide detectors. Thus there’s a huge untapped market for greater levels of homeowner protection and greater fire contractor profits. Learn how to make the compelling case for monitored system-connected fire/life-safety solutions.
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Use Expertise to Win Them Over
A side benefit of system connectivity is that these devices are installed by professionals who increase the reliability and effectiveness of fire and life-safety devices by placing them exactly how and where they are most needed. Proper installation and placement of devices leads to the right amount of protection. Proper placement also avoids the majority of nuisance alarms, which annoys people and may cause them to disable or remove the life-safety device.
Additionally, professionals can help residences stay up to code. Whether a home in a certain part of the country needs to meet NFPA codes, building code, local Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) requirements or legislative mandates, it can be a bit tricky knowing what is required.
Performance of the monitored system is supervised by the central station and will alert the homeowner of any equipment performance issues such as malfunctioning detectors or if system is experiencing mechanical trouble. The connected system will also send trouble signals to the panel so that homeowners are aware there is an issue and call to schedule service.
In addition, monitored systems proactively alert the central station and homeowner to end-of-life conditions, such as low battery life or a CO sensor reaching its end of life.
Overall, having the right fire and life-safety protection systems and services is critical to complete protection. With the potential of loss of human life and destruction of assets, they give homeowners peace of mind knowing they are protected and have the best chance of escaping. They can even allow homeowners to receive a discount on their homeowner’s insurance premiums.
Combination Detection Is Next Wave
The newest solution to detect both smoke and CO quickly is a combination CO/smoke detection system, the first system-connected combination solution for conventional fire and security systems.
This combination detector can significantly reduce parts and labor required for this installation by combining the smoke and CO detectors onto a single device. It reduces the number of wires necessary to connect each detector from eight (two for smoke and six for CO) to just two or four, depending on the system.
In the event of a smoke or CO event,
all the detector sounders on the loop will be activated. This means when one device sounds, they all sound in either Temporal 3 pattern for smoke or Temporal 4 pattern for CO events. The system will also send the appropriate signal to the panel for alerting the monitoring station.
This new technology also includes a CO sensor testing capability, which enables testing the functionality of the CO sensing cell with a short spray of canned CO. In addition, the system will send a warning signal to the panel 30 days prior to end-of-life. Rather than discarding the entire detector when the CO cell has reached end-of-life, the cell itself can be easily replaced in the field.
Ultimately, integration of the residential fire and life-safety system does not have to be complicated. Simply take advantage of today’s technology providing fire alarm systems with greater flexibility and the ability to offer improvements in fire and life safety, while reducing installed costs of complete systems.
David George is Director, Marketing Communications for System Sensor. He can be reached at (630) 762-5203 or [email protected].
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