FireNet Community
FIRE SERVICE AND GENERAL FIRE SAFETY TOPICS => Technical Advice => Topic started by: Benzerari on May 12, 2008, 07:04:21 PM
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Hi Guys;
Just need your suggestions in the following:
One of our customers suffered a lot from false alarms of some optical detector fitted in a basement of some student building accommodation, which is really dusty and full of spider's homes, these later seems to be the weakest homes ever seen but caused our customer loss of a lot of money, the care taker in person said every week he cleaned up to basement, the spiders build up new dusty homes again just in few days...
I have replaced myself the smoke detector which is a Gent optical and will see...
Would it be better to advice the customer to replace for a heat detector or a multi sensor, even woods and combustible materials are through out in the basement?
Thank you
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Hi Guys;
Just need your suggestions in the following:
One of our customers suffered a lot from false alarms of some optical detector fitted in a basement of some student building accommodation, which is really dusty and full of spider's homes, these later seems to be the weakest homes ever seen but caused our customer loss of a lot of money, the care taker in person said every week he cleaned up to basement, the spiders build up new dusty homes again just in few days...
I have replaced myself the smoke detector which is a Gent optical and will see...
Would it be better to advice the customer to replace for a heat detector or a multi sensor, even woods and combustible materials are through out in the basement?
Thank you
I know I used to have horrendous problems with the old Zettler opticals (flashing green led that turns red on fire) in one particular area of a museum.This was caused by an infestation of small black fllies (apparantly parasitic wasps!).Changed it for an Apollo optical which had smaller mesh and problem solved!
I wouldn't go rushing into fitting a heat detector though but maybe a multisensor might help - in fact,why not fit a CO?.
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Look at it another way , sodium lighting tends to keep spiders away in the first place , may be an alternative if all else fails.
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another easy fix is to remove the detector, cover the base terminals and spray flea spray in the vicinity of the detector, i know this keeps thrip flies away but it may also keep other insects at bay too.
Using the Apollo Opticals like S65 and XP95 is also a good option with the very good insect guaze. Wouldn't imagine using a Multi would be too much different from a standard Optical unless you have a flaming fire risk. A CO is another option bowever the detector inlets and filters of the CO sensor could still become blocked.
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The problem may not be the spiders moving inside the detector but the fact having got inside they can spin cobwebs which reflect the IR onto the receiver causing false alarms. One trick is to carefully dismantle the detector and then to give its internals a gentle puff of hair lacquer - this settles on the cobwebs and makes them clearly visible to the naked eye if they are present!
All you can do is to exchange the detector for one which either excludes the little beasts or as suggested above uses another detection mode or modes.
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Hi
I know this may sound stupid, if all else has failed a good hoover and try a cat flea collar fitted around the detector head base, this method has alledgedly been used sucesssfully in some of our rural properties that had experienced a number of AFA
T
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Insect repelant (yes, I know spiders are not technically insects, but it might work)?
Not sure you can jump to the CO conclusion, COs are only suitable in certain applications.
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used the flea collar for a few years now with very good results.
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Hi
I know this may sound stupid, if all else has failed a good hoover and try a cat flea collar fitted around the detector head base, this method has alledgedly been used sucesssfully in some of our rural properties that had experienced a number of AFA
T
We tried this in some rural areas where they had problems with thrips (thunder flies) and yes we found it worked quite well....not sure about spiders tho.....
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Hi there
I rally wouldnt recommend you use a multisensor because there is only an addition of a thermistor (heat detector part). So even if the flies were still there they would still set off the alarm because the smoke detector part is still there. I would recommend you use a flame detector or a heat detector or even a beam detector from system sensor. They are pretty good from experience. What type of GENT system is it? xenx 3400 or vigilon because the addressable ones only use certain protocol detectors.
Reply soon
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Flame detector - prone to false alarms from numerous light sources, unable to detect fires inside things such as electrical equipment, not really suitable for that sort of application.
Heat detector - much slower responce, not really life safety.
Beam detector - rather expensive solution, beam likely to get obstructed at low level, involves rewiring.
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agree with Chris regards flame and beam detection-not really a cost effective solution and not really likely to fit a beam detector in a bsement.
regards heat- if the room is a dusty and unclean as mentioned then the standards do say fit heat where a smoke cannot go due to the enviroment.
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Hi Guys;
Just need your suggestions in the following:
One of our customers suffered a lot from false alarms of some optical detector fitted in a basement of some student building accommodation, which is really dusty and full of spider's homes, these later seems to be the weakest homes ever seen but caused our customer loss of a lot of money, the care taker in person said every week he cleaned up to basement, the spiders build up new dusty homes again just in few days...
I have replaced myself the smoke detector which is a Gent optical and will see...
Would it be better to advice the customer to replace for a heat detector or a multi sensor, even woods and combustible materials are through out in the basement?
Thank you
I know I used to have horrendous problems with the old Zettler opticals (flashing green led that turns red on fire) in one particular area of a museum.This was caused by an infestation of small black fllies (apparantly parasitic wasps!).Changed it for an Apollo optical which had smaller mesh and problem solved!
I wouldn't go rushing into fitting a heat detector though but maybe a multisensor might help - in fact,why not fit a CO?.
Buzz; you had changed zetler which I would imaging 'Zetfas' detector by apollo optical. How did it work? they both have different protocols of communication !
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Hi Guys;
Just need your suggestions in the following:
One of our customers suffered a lot from false alarms of some optical detector fitted in a basement of some student building accommodation, which is really dusty and full of spider's homes, these later seems to be the weakest homes ever seen but caused our customer loss of a lot of money, the care taker in person said every week he cleaned up to basement, the spiders build up new dusty homes again just in few days...
I have replaced myself the smoke detector which is a Gent optical and will see...
Would it be better to advice the customer to replace for a heat detector or a multi sensor, even woods and combustible materials are through out in the basement?
Thank you
I know I used to have horrendous problems with the old Zettler opticals (flashing green led that turns red on fire) in one particular area of a museum.This was caused by an infestation of small black fllies (apparantly parasitic wasps!).Changed it for an Apollo optical which had smaller mesh and problem solved!
I wouldn't go rushing into fitting a heat detector though but maybe a multisensor might help - in fact,why not fit a CO?.
Buzz; you had changed zetler which I would imaging 'Zetfas' detector by apollo optical. How did it work? they both have different protocols of communication !
This was a conventional system (ie - not addressable).
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I know I used to have horrendous problems with the old Zettler opticals (flashing green led that turns red on fire) in one particular area of a museum.This was caused by an infestation of small black fllies (apparantly parasitic wasps!).Changed it for an Apollo optical which had smaller mesh and problem solved!
I wouldn't go rushing into fitting a heat detector though but maybe a multisensor might help - in fact,why not fit a CO?.
Buzz; you had changed zetler which I would imaging 'Zetfas' detector by apollo optical. How did it work? they both have different protocols of communication !
This was a conventional system (ie - not addressable).
Al rihgt :)