California’s State Building Code requires smoke alarms to be located in the following places:
- Outside the bedrooms in the hallway
- In every bedroom
- On every floor, regardless if there is a bedroom on that floor
These smoke alarms are powered by a 120VAC general-purpose branch circuit and a 9-volt battery in the event of a utility failure. They are typical smoke alarms that create an annoying chirp when the battery depletes at 2:00AM and good luck identifying which smoke alarm is actually chirping.
Did you know that these smoke alarms can be monitored by a building’s fire alarm system?
In order for a building’s fire alarm system to monitor smoke alarms in a residential unit the smoke alarms must be equipped with a set of normally open dry-contacts that close when the smoke alarm goes into alarm.
A monitoring module is used to supervise an initiating device circuit (IDC) that extends to and encompasses one set of normally open dry-contacts in each smoke alarm located in a residential unit (Bedrooms, hallway, etc.) The IDC uses an end-of-line resistor to supervise the circuit.
One such monitoring module is an FMM-1 made by Notifier/Honeywell.
I am presently installing a Notifier fire alarm system in the building that I’m renovating and using FMM-1 monitoring modules to supervise three 120VAC smoke alarms in each two bedroom residential unit.
Each floor has ten separate residential units and all ten of the FMM-1s are located in an electrical closet centrally located on the floor.
This is one way to accomplish this objective, If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to leave a comment. Or just say “Hi”.
