Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:07 am
That horn in your panel is probably electronic delay, unless it's more around half a second (in that case, it's programmed in).
Also, I was not saying to make it say "There is a fire" about 30 seconds after you pull the alarm. The reason I say that SelectTone, if adapted, would make a good system, is because of the ability to warn people of where the fire is, and (if some changes are made to make it really advanced) to compute and suggest exit routes. Moreover, it doubles as a PA system and a shift/class/lunch/whatever bell. My ideal system would sound a code 3 horn (not those annoying buzzers, either, I mean a tone-generated horn) for 10 seconds, then a message of where the fire is and (possibly) how to evacuate, then the code 3 horn, etc. and eventually sounding a hi-lo all clear or something followed by a voice announcement. The point of the SelectTone system is to convey information that couldn't be conveyed by word of mouth in time and to convey complex changeable information with words that everyone can understand, instead of a tone that leaves us all wondering what's going on.
You know why those new vocal smoke detectors are selling so fast? It's because of the capabilities in them. They can warn people of a fire and tell them how to evacuate. Furthermore, studies prove that kids are more responsive to these alarms than they are to simple buzzers. Proof: there was a fire alarm (luckily just a false alarm, a broken pull station wire) at our dorm a few months ago at about 2:30 AM. The only people that woke up were me and my roommate (due to our decision to install a lower-decibel horn/strobe notifier in our room for the hell of it). Even the dorm head didn't wake up! We had to go wake him up (which was scary, a big Italian guy that could have been a sumo wrestler in boxers is not a pretty sight) and right when he got up he sprinted outside and yelled at the top of his voice to "get the hell out of here", which woke up everyone on all 3 floors of the dorm! I then convinced him the next day to replace our system (installed in, I think, 2000) with a voice system - Wheelock's system, in fact. It's pretty fun, the maintenance dept. has been installing it for weeks now. They tested it yesterday, it sounds AWESOME. (Unfortunately, I didn't have my video camera with me when they tested it. I'll have to find out when the next test is.)
The moral of the story? Always ask the owner of a building upgrading their fire alarm system - I got 18 horn/strobe notifiers and 16 pull stations, along with a bunch of smoke detectors (too many to count). I had to buy the control panel, though ($20 - a deal!).
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence indicating that you tried.
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