Control Panel

A fire alarm control panel (FACP), fire alarm control unit (FACU), or simply fire alarm panel is the controlling component of a fire alarm system. The panel receives information from devices designed to detect and report fires, monitors their operational integrity and provides for automatic control of equipment, and transmission of information necessary to prepare the facility for fire based on a predetermined sequence. The panel may also supply electrical energy to operate any associated initiating device, notification appliance, control, transmitter, or relay. There are four basic types of panels: coded panels, conventional panels, addressable panels, and multiplex systems
Conventional Fire Alarm Control Panel work by responding to changes in an electrical current, such as when a smoke detector identifies smoke and changes the current in response. Once the fire panel detects this current, it sounds the alarm. The conventional fire panel is installed in different zones—such as the first floor, second floor, etc
Conventional panels have been around ever since electronics became small enough to make them viable. Conventional panels are used less frequently in large buildings than in the past, but are not uncommon on smaller projects such as small schools, stores, restaurants, and apartments
A conventional fire alarm control panel employs one or more circuits, connected to initiating devices (usually smoke detectors, heat detectors, duct detectors, manual pull stations, and sometimes flame detectors) wired in parallel. These sensors are devised to dramatically decrease the circuit resistance when the environmental influence on any sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold. In a conventional fire alarm system, the information density is limited to the number of such circuits used
To facilitate location and control of fire within a building, the structure is subdivided into definite areas or zones. Floors of a multistory building are one type of zone boundary
An Initiating Device Circuit (known as a Signaling Line Circuit (SLC) in addressable systems) connected to multiple devices within the same “zone” of protection, effectively provides 3 bits of information about the zone to the panel; normal, trouble, and alarm. The state of each initiating device circuit within a zone displays at the fire alarm control panel using visible indications, such as a flashing LED/light or an LCD display
The panel may employ a graphical representation of the zone boundaries on a floor plan (zone map) using textual descriptions, illuminated icons, illuminated sections, or illuminated points on the map corresponding to initiating circuits connected to the fire alarm control panel. Annunciators that do this are called graphic annunciators
Larger systems and increasing demand for finer diagnostic detail beyond broad area location and control functions expanded the control by zone strategy of conventional systems by providing multiple initiating circuits within a common zone, each exclusively connected to a particular type of initiating device, or group of devices. This arrangement forms a device type by zone matrix whose information is particularly suited to the Tabular annunciator In multistorey buildings employing a Tabular annunciator, for example; rows of indicators define the floors horizontally in their stacked relationship and the type of device installed on that floor displays as columns of indicators vertically aligned through each floor. The intersection of the floor and device indicators provides the combined information. The density of information however remains a function of the number of circuits employed.
Even larger systems and demands for finer diagnostic and location detail led to the introduction of addressable fire alarm systems, with each addressable device providing specific information about its state while sharing a common communication circuit. Annunciation and location strategies for the most part remain relatively unchanged