AboutJohn E. Pecore Power Quality Engineer Expertise Power Quality and Lightning protection for Burgs, Fire, CCTV, and Gate access systems. I also want to hear about Back up Generator issues effecting your electronic equipment. I know all 24 manufactures of fire alarm panels. If you ask me I will tell you who I think is the best, and who is the worst. A lot has changed in 30 years, and many consumers have no idea what they are buying, and what they should expect for reliability for their systems. The question is, why are you paying for so many repairs? In the South, re-occurring revenue is extremely important. Do you fall in that category?
Experience 18 years trouble shooting every name brand in after market lightning issues.
Organizations Stormin Protection Products Inc.
Publications Wrote a book in 1992, The Conspiracy of Electronics and you pay for it. Copyright 1993, by Terra Publishing, Salamanca NY.
Education/Credentials BSEE, MSM
Awards and Honors Inventor of many surge suppression and Power Guards used here in the USA
Past/Present Clients All 23 manufactures of fire alarm panels, several gate access mfg, Hard Rock Casino,
Question I currently have a First Alert FA120 Control Panel with a FA210 Digital Keypad. It is now monitored but I would like to discontinue the monitoring service and have the system call my cell phone if it is ever activated. Is that something I can change...have the system call me instead of the monitoring service?
Obviously the fire alarm panel can be programmed to do this.
Obviously I would not recommend it, neither would your local Fire Marshal especially if he is handing you a citation if there is a false alarm.
But if you insist, here is what I recommend:
Once you are out of a contract, the cost of repairs if need be will go through the roof. So what can you do to protect yourself to minimize repair expenses?
1. Install a 120HWCP20CB AC Surge suppression devices on your AC power.
2. Install a Spike Block-1 to minimize your ground fault or false alarm citations by your Fire Marshal. It will pay for itself.
3. Make sure you have FA 30 VB surge suppression on your zones and on the NAC circuits and power circuits install FA30BH protection.
4. Install two DLTTOS200V hardwired phone line surge suppression and you need two of them....one for one RJ31X, and the other one for the backup RJ31X. Opps, did I say, back up phone line for a fire alarm panel. Well there better be one. Having two phone lines incase of a fire one might fail to call you, the other will phone line should work. If you don't have a backup RJ31X, then I question the fire alarm panel; it might not meet with the Fire Marshals standards.
Also to qualify this: You ask me as though I was a First Alert Dealer, and my response is, I am a Power Quality Engineer and I specialize in providing lightning protection devices to dealers who work on your panels. No one ever reads my Bio, but sometimes I can answer questions that make sense to me. This one is logical enough but like I said, I would never advocate anyone that has a panel monitored by a professional to consider dropping the monitoring service. There is a reason these services are there, and I think it has to do with saving your life in a pinch.
Well anyway...I hope I answered your question to the best of my ability. Most people do not think about the unexpected expenses such as lightning and power surges. Now this advice I hope you take it seriously.
Sincerely
John E. Pecore,
Your Power Quality Engineer
For Burglar Alarms, Fire Alarms, CCTV, and Gate Access.
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