North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, has upgraded its fire safety system using FastConvert, C-TEC's conventional-to-addressable zone converter, in a project intended to avoid the cost and disruption of a full replacement.
The school had initially considered replacing its fire system outright. Following a site survey, specialist electrical contractor W R Fire & Security identified an alternative: enhancing the existing conventional system by converting it to addressable operation with FastConvert.
Three alternative routes assessed
Before settling on the converter, the project team assessed three other upgrade options:
- A new conventional panel. This would have allowed zones to be separated and additional zones created, but required extra cabling and would still have left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- A full re-cable of the system. Ruled out on budget grounds; it was estimated to add around £10,000 in materials and additional labour, with greater disruption and a longer installation timescale.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops. This would have added roughly a week to the installation for two engineers, plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000–£4,000.
According to the company, 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 so without the extra cost, labour or disruption.
From legacy wiring to a two-loop panel
Working with the old system's wiring, the converter upgraded the school's legacy conventional system to an open-protocol CAST addressable system. The resulting system is described as capable of lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and able to accommodate C-TEC's CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, which the manufacturer describes as false-alarm resistant and award-winning. To achieve this, two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
Contractor's assessment
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the converter had proved extremely innovative in terms of what it can do. Set against a full re-wire that would have added about £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops at an extra £3,000–£4,000 plus a week's extra labour for two engineers, he said FastConvert was the clear winner, reducing installation time, site disruption and labour costs, and saving approximately £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the team also rated the new CAST-PRO devices, which he considered superior to other manufacturers' products because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, removing the need for separate sounder bases.