North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, has converted its legacy conventional fire detection system into an addressable one using FastConvert, C-TEC's conventional-to-addressable zone converter. The work was carried out by specialist electrical contractor W R Fire & Security, which recommended conversion after a site survey rather than the complete replacement the school had first considered.
C-TEC describes FastConvert as a zone converter that lets an existing system's wiring be reused as part of an addressable loop, so the upgrade does not depend on new cabling. The company says the approach has saved thousands of pounds on the school project.
Three upgrade routes compared
- New conventional panel: this would have let zones be separated out and additional zones created, but it required extra cabling and would still have left a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- Full re-cable: ruled out on budget grounds, as it was estimated to add around £10,000 in materials and labour, with greater disruption and a longer installation programme.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops: this would have added roughly a week for two engineers, plus extra cabling and materials, at an estimated additional cost of £3,000–£4,000.
According to C-TEC, FastConvert was the only route 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 extra cost, labour or disruption.
How the conversion was implemented
Two existing radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert. The resulting system runs on C-TEC's open-protocol CAST addressable platform, which the company says can support lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and can host its award-winning CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, designed to be resistant to false alarms.
C-TEC notes that the CAST-PRO heads incorporate the sounder/VAD and multi-sensor functions, so separate sounder bases are not needed.
Installer's assessment
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the converter was extremely innovative in what it can do. Set against a full re-wire, which would have added about £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops, which would have cost an extra £3,000–£4,000 and a week's additional labour for two engineers, FastConvert was the clear choice, he said. It considerably reduced installation time, site disruption and labour costs, he added, and saved roughly £3,500 on the project.
Riley added that the company rates the CAST-PRO devices highly and considers them superior to other manufacturers' products, because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, removing the need for separate sounder bases.
The cost comparisons and performance descriptions in this report are as stated by C-TEC and W R Fire & Security.