North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, has moved its fire detection onto an addressable architecture while keeping its existing wiring, after specialist electrical company W R Fire & Security proposed using C-TEC's FastConvert conventional-to-addressable zone converter instead of replacing the system outright.
The school had initially considered a complete replacement of its fire system. Following a site survey, the installer identified an alternative route: enhancing the existing conventional installation by converting it into an addressable system with FastConvert, which C-TEC describes as a conventional-to-addressable zone converter.
Three upgrade routes weighed
According to the project account, three options were assessed before FastConvert was selected.
- A new conventional panel. This would have let the existing zones be separated out and additional zones created, but it required extra cabling and would have left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- A full re-cable. Ruled out on budget grounds, since it would have added an estimated £10,000 in materials and additional labour, along with far greater disruption and a longer installation timescale.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops. This was estimated to add around a week of work for two engineers plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an extra cost of roughly £3,000–£4,000.
FastConvert was the only option that avoided all three drawbacks at once: it reuses the existing wiring, delivers a genuine loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, and does so without the additional cost, labour or disruption.
How the system was reconfigured
Two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert. The result is an open-protocol CAST addressable system designed to support lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and to accommodate C-TEC's CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, which the manufacturer describes as false-alarm resistant.
Installer's assessment
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was very impressed with FastConvert and considered it extremely innovative in terms of what it can do. Set against a full re-wire that would have added around £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops at an extra £3,000–£4,000 plus a week's labour for two engineers, he called FastConvert the clear winner, saying it massively reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs and saved approximately £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the company also rates the CAST-PRO devices highly, noting that the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads so separate sounder bases are not needed, a configuration he regards as superior to other manufacturers' products.
The savings figures and performance descriptions above reflect the installer's account of the project and C-TEC's product positioning; the article reports no independent verification of either.