Update Regarding UL 2196 Listed Cables

    UPDATE!!!!  There are additional cables that are listed under the FHIT portion of UL 2196.  We’ve reviewed all the products listed under this category and are not advocating any particular cable, but from a life safety system installation perspective, the most interesting cable that we’ve seen involves a two conductor, 14 or 16 gauge, [Read More]

Installing Mineral InsuIated (MI) Cable

Mark Hall and Ben Piper of Pentair Pyrotenax/Raychem, a manufacturer of mineral insulated (MI) cable, recently posted important information in our comments section regarding the installation of MI cable in Chicago and per UL standards. Ben Piper pointed out Chicago allows MI to be installed without a raceway when used with a required fire alarm and/or emergency voice communication [Read More]

Simultaneous Elevator Recall Activation

I recently received a good question through the comment section regarding one of our elevator recall blogs. The question was: Is it proper to use one addressable fire input into an elevator recall point then parallel out of this point into another separate elevator controller recall input? A: If separate controllers handle cars in the [Read More]

Applying Common Sense to Intelligibility

If you’re reading this blog, you’ve no doubt heard about and know what the definition of intelligibility is, but may not be sure of how to achieve it. Most of the time, the quest for intelligibility is met with “It depends…”. That is true, but more often than not, that applies to unique situations. Since [Read More]

CI Cable Availability Update

From UL, dated April 3, 2013: “UL 2196 & ULC-S139 Consensus Standards Update A joint U.S. and Canada standards working group of the technical committee has been formed to determine what upgrades in requirements are necessary and to deliver a single, harmonized bi-national standard.  The group was provided a detailed report from the three working [Read More]

Can I put more than one sprinkler valve monitor on a single point?

Physically, you can obviously put the sprinkler devices on the same addressable circuit if there’s capacity on it. If you have a non-addressable fire alarm system or want to combine a number of valves onto a single addressable module, the valves must annunciate distictly if they have a dissimilar function.  In other words, if approved by [Read More]

High Rise Fire Safety in Chicago

The Chicago High Rise Ordinance was established in 1975 to ensure that occupants of buildings eighty feet and taller had a reasonable amount of protection from smoke and fire while egressing the building or waiting in place. It is comprised of a number of codes found in different chapters of the Chicago Building Code (CBC). However, the [Read More]

Elevator Code Compliance

When providing a scope of work for incorporation an existing elevator bank with an existing fire alarm system, which you may need to do within the next year to keep complaint with the current Chicago elevator code, first ensure the elevator’s emergency operation can be controlled automatically. Chicago adopted ASME 17.3 – 2005 with variations [Read More]

CI Cable Is No Longer Listed For Two Hour Survivability…….Now What?

CI lost its UL 2196 listing in September 2012, so any installation that calls for a UL listed two hour survivability rating can’t use CI cable manufactured after then. UL states that CI cable manufactured before then was made to standards appropriate at the time so they recommend that any projects that are under way [Read More]

Integrating Carbon Monoxide Detectors With Fire Alarm Systems

As commercial fire alarm system capabilities increase, designers of record are increasingly combining previously stand alone (single station) carbon monoxide (CO) detection into a supervised, reporting fire alarm system.  If the unmonitored, single station CO detector is unplugged or is otherwise non-operational, no one knows.  A CO detector, or better still, combination smoke/CO detector that [Read More]