Electric Engineer Specifications
Electrical Engineers design the Electrical Systems of buildings and other systems such as the FIRE ALARM, SECURITY, CAMERAS, KEYLESS ENTRY SYSTEMS, AV SYSTEMS and more.
We welcome feedback from Electrical Engineers, Architects and fire alarm design teams for the correction of any errors or code corrections. Please contact Larry Love NICET II at Larry.Love@jci.com with corrections or feedback.
We also are happy to assist electrical engineers and we will look at their specifications and we can make recommendations to update those specifications.
Many of the specifications list very old items many of which do not exist or are not longer used. Lamps cannot be replaced in strobes or horn strobes. You would get a whole new unit. Many specifications require that we provide information on a CD Rom or even VCR VHS tapes, most of the time we provide digital documents although we can provide printed documents when required and we can provide documents on a USB although even that is going to the cloud. Sometimes they will require 10 percent spare parts which come to thousands of dollars on a large project and we can do that although often the owners would rather have 5 of each item on a large project rather than 80 spare horn strobes etc…
Professional Engineers (PE) will often design basic fire alarm system for a new building with the plans and use boiler plate specifications which often were used on previous projects and sometimes the specifications are outdated so you may not have everything that is needed addressed in the specification although often the spec will address systems thar are not on the project such as smoke control or a VESDA system because it was just a specification from a previous project.
Here at Johnson Controls Fire Protection most of what we do is Fire Alarm systems so we stay on top of the current codes which as IBC, IFC, NFPA, NEC and the other codes so we can help you update your specifications and we can help with fire alarm designs.
There are code items that have changed over the years so one example is code will allow you to delete or omit the pull stations on a fire alarm if the building is fully sprinkled although code still requires at least one pull station in many cases that is left out.
Utah R710 code and many fire marshals will require a horn strobe outside the fire riser room which is a weather proof appliance and since it is tied to the fire alarm it has 24 hour battery backup which the 120V bells or horn strobes do not. A water gong which is powered by the water flowing through the pipes works although often BIRDS will build their nests in the bells and then they don’t function well. The outdoor bells or horn strobes are not life safety but they are more of a convenance for the fire department so the fire trucks can see where the riser is in the building when they pull up.
Other items that are not designed properly are when the Engineer shows 120 V smoke alarms in an R1 or R2 like hotels and such new code requires that those 120V smoke alarms have low frequency sounders and currently no one makes a smoke alarm with a low frequency sounder so low frequency appliances need to be added to the fire alarm system either using a relay output off the smoke alarms or installing smoke detectors that are system detectors that are 24 volt instead of 120 and we have smoke detectors with low frequency sounders and here at JCI we have addressable and non addressable low frequency horns, speakers, and horn strobes and speaker strobes. We can help you design a system that will function and meet the current code for ADA with low frequency.
Often the spacing of smoke detectors is not properly designed, many times the engineer does not show the proper amount or any monitor modules. Often the elevator recall modules are not shown. Be careful because more often than not the electrical engineer will not show the dampers, induct duct detectors with the relays and monitor modules needed for the project. Many times you will need to find that information on the mechanical drawings. Sometimes the PE will refer to the mechanical plans and other times they will not.
Often Electrical Engineering specifications will call out to match the existing equipment and tie to an existing fire alarm panel when it is a new building so we have to submit an RFI request for information and ask the questions to get answers when a boiler plate spec is used. Often we just don’t bid the project when it says it is an existing system without listing what brand and model number of panel it is.
Many Electrical Engineers are not putting statement in their specifications or on the plans that says that the fire alarm contractor needs to provide a code compliant system and we certainly can although when the General Contractors or the Electrical Contractors only wants us to bid what is shown on the plans so they can compare bids we let them know what has been left out so if they go with the lowest bid for the project then order changes will end up happening because the fire marshal and or third party reviews will add the items that were left out and the price will go up drastically.
I admire Electrical Engineers because they put together plans and specifications for these projects dealing with many areas whereas we concentrate on very few systems such as Fire Alarm, VESDA, AOR Area of Refuge two way voice, BDA Radio systems, monitoring, testing etc….
Call us at our local JCI Johnson Controls Fire Protection office and we can assist you with your fire alarm designs for upgrades or for new systems.
Matt Bingham 801 419 1379 matthew.bingham@jci.com New Construction and Owner Direct
Larry Love 801 898 6003 Larry.Love@jci.com - New Construction and Owner Direct
Shandie Gorney 801 262 9406 Shandie.a.gorney@jci.com - Tests and inspections, service, TI remodels
Jackson Jones 801 403 3461 Jackson.Jones@jci.com Service
We do have others on the teams as well as our service department, our installation department and our UL listed Monitoring Stations and teams.
We have many NICET techs 1 through 4 to help with design, reviews, CAD drawings and site visits.