Author Topic: Detection Cabling  (Read 6998 times)

Offline Galeon

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Detection Cabling
« on: June 18, 2008, 11:40:09 PM »
Read an article in the trade rag , by a guy from Siemens talking about the reasons for not using soft skinned / mineral cable for detection , but screened beldon etc as they do outside good old blighty.

Anyone else read this article , and what did you think.
Its time to make a counter attack !

Offline John Webb

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« Reply #1 on: June 19, 2008, 11:13:33 AM »
Which 'trade rag', please?
John Webb
Consultant on Fire Safety, Diocese of St Albans
(Views expressed are my own)

Davo

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Detection Cabling
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2008, 11:46:22 AM »
John

I think Galeon means this months Fire Safety Engineering, page 27.
An article by Don Scott from Siemens talking about wiring in Belden type as in Europe.
The article is probably on their website.

Its a puff for buying their Sinteso detectors really

davo

Offline wee brian

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« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2008, 12:40:19 PM »
That's the troubke with most of these articles - they are just thinly veiled adverts.

Often misleading/wrong scaremongering etc. I only look at the Job adverts.

Offline kurnal

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« Reply #4 on: June 19, 2008, 12:43:29 PM »
Good idea Wee B - you never know when you may get the sack.

Offline Allen Higginson

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« Reply #5 on: June 19, 2008, 02:37:46 PM »
Quote from: Davo
John

I think Galeon means this months Fire Safety Engineering, page 27.
An article by Don Scott from Siemens talking about wiring in Belden type as in Europe.
The article is probably on their website.

Its a puff for buying their Sinteso detectors really

davo
Not having read the article I cant quote on it directly but not using FP etc. for installations is an opinion that Don has voiced previously.
It stems (basically) from the theory that if you have an addressable system (with individual isoltators) installed to L1 or P1 then it is not necessary to use fire cable in that as the system has short circuit isolators,is wired in a loop and has detection throughout then system integrity can be maintained in the event of a fire (through early detection and the sounders still operating even in the event of a cable fault).
He has previously used the same point of view for the use of T & E.
As for blowing the trumpet for Sinteso - why not!

Offline Wiz

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« Reply #6 on: June 19, 2008, 03:22:07 PM »
The way I see it is that the 'theory' mentioned above would also require a more precise location of short-circuit isolators (where they are not integral to each device) than at present, so that loss of part of the circuit due to a single cable fault would affect only a pre-defined area.

The use of T&E style cables on addressable systems might also raise problems with the lack of electrical interference shielding. The use of pvc/pvc cables that are already manufactured for data transmission and have electrical interference shielding might not be of sufficient csa for the type of currents (with loop-powered alarm warning devices) that are common today, and might suffer volt drop problems on longer runs.

I appreciate that a pvc/pvc 'data' style cable could be specially produced that was suitable for the data and current requirements of modern addressable fire alarm systems, but would it cost considerably less than current fire resistant cable? If not, what is the purpose of proposing it's use?

I feel that we have finally got to an acceptable and easy to understand standard for fire alarm system cables i.e fire-resistant cable on all critical signal paths - so what would be the real benefits of changing the recommendations now? Would an alternative option for addressable systmes only cause confusion and be a 'backward' step in the fire resistance integrity of circuits?

Offline Allen Higginson

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« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2008, 12:13:17 AM »
Hi Wiz - with reference to the individual isolators having isolators this is achieved by installing isolator bases instead of standard bases at each detector,with relevant other field devices bein of the integrated isolator type (eg - Apollo or Hochiki).
My personal opinion is that with the data being transmitted between panel and device getting more,whats the phrase,cluttered(!) then I feel that 1.5mm standard FP isn't up to carrying it over longer distances (hence the use of other cables in mainland EU states.) leading to acceptable yet slower message handling.
You wouldn't think to wire a PC network at home in 1.5 FP (or equivalent).

Offline Wiz

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« Reply #8 on: June 20, 2008, 01:39:08 PM »
Quote from: Buzzard905
Hi Wiz - with reference to the individual isolators having isolators this is achieved by installing isolator bases instead of standard bases at each detector,with relevant other field devices bein of the integrated isolator type (eg - Apollo or Hochiki).
My personal opinion is that with the data being transmitted between panel and device getting more,whats the phrase,cluttered(!) then I feel that 1.5mm standard FP isn't up to carrying it over longer distances (hence the use of other cables in mainland EU states.) leading to acceptable yet slower message handling.
You wouldn't think to wire a PC network at home in 1.5 FP (or equivalent).
Buzzard905, I fully understand the isolator issue and the original post suggested devices with integral isolators anyway. Although a point could be made that the isolator issue is not the most important potential problem anyway, I thought I would confirm that the role of any short-circuit  isolator positioning would need to be considered.

When it comes to the cable, I asked if the proposed suggestion was a way of reducing cable costs. Your answer appears to be saying that longer loop cable lengths would be the big advantage. I understand that a more 'data friendly' cable might allow faster (your post said slower but surely you meant faster) data (message) speeds but the longer cable lengths mights still give us volt drop problems - are you saying that this special data cable would have, say, 4mm2 csa conductors and allow loop lengths of 4Km and 250+ devices? How would we connect such thick cables to the equipment?

Also the loop length cannot be infinate (even ignoring the volt drop problem) since BS recommends that it shouldn't cover an area of more than 10,000 sq m anyway.

So to get the benefits of the 'thick-cored' 'data friendly/faster' cable, we would probably want protocols handling many more than the (typical) 126/127 addresses and we would still be restricted by the 10,000 sq m recommendation anyway.

Hmmm - I can't see that there are many suitable advantages.

I can see that a fire resistant cable that allows faster data is a good idea but there is no way around the conductor size issue unless device power requirements drop even further. And then to get the full potential of it's faster speeds in respect of more addresses, the BS recommendation might need to be changed.

p.s The home PC network is not a good analogy for your argument because home PC network is not considered a life safety system!