Your fire alarm panel monitors what state the fire alarm system is in at all times. It will then indicate what state the system is in. This will be one of the following three states of operation: Normal, Alarm and Trouble. In this blog post we look at the three states of your fire alarm system so you can understand what needs to be done at each state.
Normal State
When all of your devices, appliances, wiring and circuitry within your fire alarm system are operation correctly and no alarms are activated this is known as the fire alarm system operating in a ‘normal’ state. There is nothing to worry about and nothing you need to do when your fire alarm system is in a ‘normal’ state.
Alarm State
Your fire alarm system will go into ‘alarm’ state when an initiating device within your fire alarm system is activated. The indicating appliances will sound. This will alert everyone in the building that there is a danger and to leave the building. There will be an alphanumeric display on your control panel. This will clearly indicate where in the building the alarm is originating from. The zone or zones displayed will tell the emergency personnel where the issue is so they can quickly respond in the correct area of the building.
Trouble State
If there is a short or open wiring in the fire alarm system circuit that connects the fire alarm control panel to initiating devise that then fire alarm system will go into ‘trouble’ state. This will also happen is there is a short or open wiring within the wiring of the panel or zone cards, or even if the phone line connection for the fire alarm system is not functioning. This will be displayed as ‘trouble’ on your control panel.
The fire alarm panel will display ‘trouble’, but it will also indicate the zone where there is an issue. A buzzer will sound too. This is to alert maintenance personnel to the problem. The buzzer is loud enough to be heard but nowhere near as loud as the indicating appliances. This is to ensure that it is not confused with an actual fire alarm.
If you notice that your fire alarm system is in the ‘trouble’ state, call our team of fire alarm professionals. We can check, inspect, maintain, repair and upgrade your fire alarm system if so required.
