What good is a fire alarm system without an effective means of notifying building occupants when there’s a fire in progress? Not much. It’s almost as bad when the wrong notification appliances are installed because it increases the chance of deaths and injuries among those within the structure. This is why it’s important to know a thing or two about fire alarm notification appliances and the fire alarm control panels (FACPs) they connect to.

With this in mind, on a room-to-room basis, the fire alarm system designer must know all sorts of things about the environment. Otherwise it may not be possible to determine the correct specifications of the notification appliances required. Included in this assessment is the technologies used to operate them, the visual characteristics of the strobes, and the right audible components used to gain attention.