Manual Fire Alarm System

A building fire emergency notification system consisting minimally of audible and visual alarm notification appliances (i.e., horns and strobes) installed within all common-use areas of a building and manual alarm stations (i.e., pull stations) installed at every exit from every level. If the building is also provided with an automatic sprinkler system, the water flow devices and valve tamper switches are also connected to the fire alarm system. Activation of any manual pull station or water flow through the sprinkler system will activate all interior alarm notification appliances. Certain minimum fire alarm signal audibility levels, which are based on the average ambient sound levels within the building, are required to be met and are measured by the fire district during the acceptance test of the system.

Automatic & Manual Fire Alarm System

A building fire emergency notification system consisting of audible and visual alarm notification appliances installed within all common-use areas of a building, manual alarm stations installed at every exit from every level, and automatic initiating devices (i.e., smoke detectors, heat detectors, or flame detectors) installed throughout all areas of the building. If the building is also provided with an automatic sprinkler system, the water flow devices and valve tamper switches are also connected to the fire alarm system. Activation of any manual pull station, initiating device, or water flow through the sprinkler system will activate all interior alarm notification appliances. Certain minimum fire alarm signal audibility levels, which are based on the average ambient sound levels within the building, are required to be met and are measured by the fire district during the acceptance test of the system.

Automatic Sprinkler System Water Flow Monitoring Alarm System (Often Called a Sprinkler Monitoring Alarm System for Brevity)

An alarm system that can only be installed within a building equipped with an automatic fire sprinkler system. Its purpose is to monitor water flow through the automatic sprinkler system and the position of any sprinkler system control valves. A sprinkler monitoring alarm system does not include notification appliances installed throughout all common-use areas, but rather only has one notification appliance (i.e., a horn/strobe) mounted in a normally occupied location within the building and one horn/strobe mounted on the exterior of the building above the fire department connection to the sprinkler system. Other than the water flow detector, the only initiating devices included with a sprinkler monitoring alarm system are typically one smoke detector over the control panel and one manual pull station for the purposes of initiating an alarm if the sprinkler system is out of service or if a fire is observed by a building occupant prior to activation of the sprinkler system. There are no specific minimum alarm signal audibility levels associated with a sprinkler monitoring alarm system or measured by the fire district at the time of final acceptance. The interior audible and visual alarm device merely has to be noticeable and audible above the normal ambient sound level within the portion of the building in which it is installed.