Addressable Systems

The term “Addressable Fire” applies to systems which are based on the latest  sophisticated technology; addressable systems allow a user to identify each and every “device” by name and location.  A “device” is any product which the system recognises and is designed to work with and can be a sensor, such as Heat, Smoke or CO (Carbon Monoxide), Manual Call Point, Sounder as well as many types of interfaces and input/output modules, again dependant on the system.

An addressable system is “loop wired” and every “device” other than specialist equipment sits directly on the wire, which consists of 2 cores. A loop can be up to 1 kilometre in length, depending on the system chosen and will be able to have a pre-determined number of “devices”; again this will depend on the system.

A key benefit of an addressable fire system over a conventional system therefore is that each device, whether it be a sensor , call point or one of the interfaces controlling other equipment, each has it's own individual identification number (address) e.g. 'Smoke Sensor 32 – “Managing Directors Office Zone 7'.  A sensor with its own address, with a fire or fault signal can be quickly identified by staff or more importantly the Fire and Rescue Services.

Sophisticated programming around “cause and effect” can be set up to meet a buildings specific requirements, for example a shopping centre where a signal is first investigated by centre management prior to evacuating the centre or cascade evacuation of a building floor by floor to prevent panic and congestion.

Another of the advantages, with addressable systems, is the ability to change the operating parameters of each sensor, individually from the main panel; the sensitivity of each sensor can be programmed to suit the environment.  Additionally, because the signal is sent to the panel to be analysed, the information can be compared to data or “Algorithms” that have already been pre-programmed, by the manufacturer, to interpret the signal correctly as a fire event.

ADT's MX Range

The MX range from ADT is a highly sophisticated yet easy to operate addressable fire system, giving the user a range of benefits from flexibility of operation, through to  detailed information on every incident.

With features such as MX Fast Logic, using “Fuzzy Logic” to analyse smoke and MX Virtual, Multi sensor detection, MX is not simply one of the best systems to detect a fire incident but one of the most reliable, and one of the most resilient.

The MX offers a low cost of ownership solution whilst completly  protecting your staff and building from fire.