W R Fire & Security has upgraded North Road Academy’s conventional fire system to an addressable platform using C-TEC’s FastConvert, a conventional-to-addressable zone converter, and says the approach saved thousands of pounds on the school project.
North Road Academy is an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent. It initially considered a complete replacement of its fire system. After a site survey, the specialist electrical company identified the potential to enhance the existing conventional system by converting it to addressable operation with FastConvert.
Three alternatives weighed
Before selecting FastConvert, the installer considered three upgrade options. A new conventional panel would have allowed zones to be separated and additional zones to be created, but it would have required extra cabling and still left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information. A full re-cable was ruled out by budget: it was estimated to add £10,000 in materials and labour, with greater disruption and a longer installation. Converting the remaining six zones into loops would have added around a week for two engineers, plus cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000 to £4,000.
FastConvert avoided all three drawbacks by reusing the existing wiring, delivering a loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, and doing so without the extra cost, labour or disruption, according to the project account. It upgraded the legacy conventional system into an open-protocol CAST addressable system. C-TEC says the system can support lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and accommodate its CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices. The manufacturer describes those devices as false-alarm resistant and award-winning, with sounders, visual alarm devices and multi-sensors built into the heads so separate sounder bases are not needed.
Installation approach
For the project, two radials were combined into a single loop, and a dedicated two-loop panel was installed for FastConvert. This allowed the school to move to an addressable loop architecture without a complete rewire.
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was impressed by the converter’s capabilities. He compared it with a full rewire, which he said would have added around £10,000 to the job, and with converting the remaining zones into loops, which he said would have cost an extra £3,000 to £4,000 plus a week’s additional labour for two engineers. In his assessment, FastConvert was the clear choice because it reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs, and saved about £3,500 on the project.
Riley also welcomed the CAST-PRO devices, saying the installer considered them superior to other manufacturers’ products because the sounder/VAD and multi-sensor functions are integrated into the heads.
The project illustrates a middle path for buildings with legacy conventional systems: an addressable conversion can preserve existing cabling while adding loop-based capabilities. The reported savings are based on the installer’s comparison with the alternative options.