Meanwhile today’s fire systems must meet standards requiring the systems to notify people of certain conditions — a requirement that wasn’t so common in the past. That trend has increased the power requirements for fire systems from 6 or 8A to as high as 12A, notes Pecora.
Fire systems traditionally have had external power supplies, but as power requirements have grown, security dealers increasingly have come to use external power supplies for intrusion systems as well, rather than the power supplies that traditionally are built into the alarm panel. That reality has driven demand for supervised power supplies that report back to the panel if the power supply is tampered with or if AC power is interrupted, notes Jonathan Jennings, sales trainer for Elk Products, a Hildebran, N.C.-based manufacturer that recently introduced supervised alarm system power supplies.