A primary school in Stoke-on-Trent has upgraded its fire detection system by converting existing conventional wiring into an addressable loop rather than replacing the installation, using C-TEC's FastConvert zone converter.
North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school, had initially considered a complete replacement of its fire system. Specialist electrical contractor W R Fire & Security carried out a site survey and identified the conversion route instead.
According to the company, three alternatives were examined before FastConvert was chosen. A new conventional panel would have allowed zones to be separated and additional zones created, but it required extra cabling and would still have limited reporting to zonal fire and fault information. A full re-cable was ruled out on budget, since it would have added an estimated £10,000 in materials and labour, along with longer installation and greater disruption. Converting the remaining six zones into loops would have added around a week for two engineers, plus cabling and materials, at an estimated £3,000–£4,000 extra.
FastConvert avoided all three drawbacks at once: it reused the existing wiring, delivered a loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, and avoided the additional cost, labour and disruption. Two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert. The resulting open-protocol CAST addressable system supports lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity and can accommodate C-TEC's CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, which build sounder/VAD and multi-sensor functions into the head.
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the approach reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs and saved approximately £3,500 on the project. He added that the CAST-PRO devices were preferred to other manufacturers' products because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, removing the need for separate sounder bases.