When choosing a fire alarm system for your business, you should think about whether a hard-wired or wireless system will work better for you. There are good things and bad things about each option.
Hard-Wired Fire Alarms
For new buildings, wired alarm systems are a good choice because the wires can be hidden inside the walls and ceilings. But wired alarms might not be the best choice for historical buildings, where the wires are hard to hide and doing so could cause damage. Among the benefits of a wired fire alarm system are the following:
- Less expensive:- The parts of a wired alarm system are usually less expensive than the parts of a wireless alarm system.
- No signal interference:- Wired alarms don’t receive signals through radio frequencies, so you won’t have to worry about signal interference like you might with a wireless alarm.
- More common:- Wired systems are more common than wireless ones, which could make it easier and cheaper to find replacement parts.
- Don’t need batteries:- Since wired alarm systems are powered by the main power source, you don’t have to worry about replacing batteries. This makes them more reliable than wireless alarms.
Wireless Fire Alarm Systems
- Easier and cheaper to set up:- During the installation process, you may save time, money, and have less trouble with your business. Wireless systems are easier to set up because they don’t need wires.
- More flexible:- Wireless fire alarms can be put up on any kind of wall and are easy to take down or move. Because of its flexibility, a wireless alarm system is easier to keep up, upgrade, or add to.
- They look better:- Wireless systems don’t have wires or cables that could make your building look bad. For this reason, applications that care about how they look might want to go with a wireless system.
Which Alarm System is Right for You?
Are you trying to figure out what kind of fire alarm system to install? If you are building a new building, you might want to think about a wired system because it is more reliable and the parts are cheaper. But if you care about how your building looks and want to be able to move it around, you might want to choose a wireless system.
What needs attention
- Wired equipment may have lower device cost but cable labour, containment and reinstatement can dominate project cost
- Wireless installation can reduce disruption but device, survey, repeater and lifecycle battery costs must be counted
- Wired does not mean battery-free: panels and other equipment require standby supplies
- Wireless does not mean unsupervised: approved systems report low battery, loss of communication and other faults
- Radio signals can be weakened by distance, reinforced construction, metal storage, machinery and building changes
- Cable circuits can fail through fire, water, mechanical damage, poor joints or unauthorised work
- A hybrid design may provide the best balance rather than forcing one technology throughout
Controls that reduce risk
- Ask for the fire strategy and design basis before requesting quotations
- Require a documented radio survey for any wireless or hybrid proposal
- Compare full lifecycle cost: cable work, disruption, batteries, repeaters, testing, licences and spares
- Confirm standby power and low-battery or communication-fault reporting
- Check that alarm audibility and visual notification cover every occupied area
- Test interfaces to doors, lifts, smoke control, suppression and monitoring where provided
- Keep drawings, device lists, battery dates, radio results and cause-and-effect records
- Arrange competent review after renovations, new machinery or major storage changes
Common unsafe practices
- Choosing solely by purchase price or appearance
- Claiming wired alarms have no batteries or wireless alarms are inherently unreliable
- Using domestic standalone detectors as a substitute for a required commercial alarm system
- Skipping a radio survey or testing only before shelving and machinery are installed
- Using ordinary network availability as evidence that a life-safety radio system will work
- Failing to supervise cable circuits, radio links, power supplies and device batteries
- Mixing incompatible devices or changing firmware and network components without approval
- Moving partitions or storage without reassessing detection and signal paths
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