Addressable Fire Alarm Panels

This page is about Addressable Panels, to read about about Intelligent panels, go to Intelligent Fire Alarm Panels

An addressable panel is a type of fire alarm control panel which is able to keep track of individual devices which are connected. The panels accomplish this with a SLC (signalling line circuit) which contains all initiating devices for a system. In comparison to a conventional control panel, no resistors are required on the SLC.

Depending on the brand and model of the addressable panel, various programming or user features may be available. Examples of this may include individual point control (enabling or disabling), or custom labels for each point. If a facility desires more information or control over the system, they may opt for an intelligent system instead.

Addressable systems will require the company's own devices to be used on the panel. For example, a Simplex 4010 would require Simplex IDNet pull stations and smoke detectors.

Required uses

IBC/IFC section 907.6.3 requires fire alarm systems to provide point identification of initiating devices, with 4 exceptions:

Small single-story buildings with less than 22500 square feet of area do not require point identification on any initiating devices.
Systems that exclusively contain pull stations, waterflow switches, pressure switches, and up to 10 other initiating devices do not require any point identification.
Special initiating devices that do not support point identification are exempt from this requirement. Note that this exception has limited use, since almost all initiating devices can be point-identified through the use of a monitor module.
Point identification is not needed when replacing equipment that previously did not provide point identification.

Theoretically, point identification could be provided by a conventional FACP by connecting every device to a separate zone, but this would require very inefficient wiring that could be simplified with an addressable FACP. Additionally, most modern conventional panels have 10 or fewer zones, and any system small enough to provide point identification with such an FACP would also not require point identification under exception 2.

Addressable protocols


Name	Point Capacity	Manufacturer
CLIP	198 devices	System Sensor
FlashScan	318 devices	Notifier/System Sensor
LiteSpeed	198 or 318 devices¹	Fire Lite/System Sensor
HFS	25 devices	Silent Knight/Fire-Lite/System Sensor
Velociti	318 devices	System Sensor/Gamewell-FCI
DCP/ESP	127 devices	Hochiki
XP95	127 devices	Apollo
Discovery	127 devices	Apollo
MAPNET I	127 devices	Simplex
MAPNET II	127 devices	Simplex
IDNet	250 devices	Simplex
TFX	99 devices²	AUTOCALL/Thorn/Grinell/Apollo
FAST (CLIP)	198 devices	System Sensor
EST Signature	250 devices	EST
FirePrint	255 devices	Siemens/Faraday/Cerberus Pyrotronics

^{1. Depending on the application and panel.}

^{2. Capacity obtained from a 4100ES datasheet.}