FastConvert, C-TEC’s new conventional to addressable zone converter, has saved thousands of pounds on a school project.
North Road Academy, a thriving Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, initially considered a complete replacement of its fire system. However, following a site survey, specialist electrical company, W R Fire & Security, recognised the potential to enhance the existing conventional system by converting it to an addressable system using FastConvert.
Prior to opting for FastConvert, three possible upgrade options were considered. The first was a new conventional panel, which would have allowed the zones to be separated out and additional zones created. However, this would have required extra cabling and left the school with a conventional system limited to only being able to report zonal fire and fault information.
The second was a full re-cable of the system, ruled out by budget as it would have added an estimated £10,000 in materials and additional labour, along with far greater disruption and a longer installation timescale.
The third was to convert the remaining six zones into loops, which would have added around a week to the installation for two engineers, plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000-£4,000.
FastConvert was the only option that avoided all three drawbacks at once – reusing the existing wiring, delivering a genuine loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one and doing it without the extra cost, labour or disruption. This, therefore, made it the obvious choice for the school.
By utilising the old system’s wiring, FastConvert quickly and easily upgraded the school’s legacy conventional system into a powerful open-protocol CAST addressable system capable of lockdown alert functionality, internet connectivity and accommodating C-TEC’s award-winning CAST-PRO false alarm resistant combined fire detection and alarm devices. To achieve this, two radials were combined into a single loop with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
Wayne Riley, MD of W R Fire & Security, said: “We are very impressed with FastConvert – it is extremely innovative in terms of what it can do. Against a full re-cable, which would have added around £10,000 to the job or converting the zones into loops, which would have cost an extra £3,000-£4,000 and a week’s extra labour for two engineers, FastConvert was the clear winner. It massively reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs.
“We also really like the new CAST-PRO devices and feel they are far superior to other manufacturers as they have the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors built into the heads so you don’t need separate sounder bases.”