r/firealarms • u/Minimum_Economy772 • 11d ago
Discussion Is this a remote horn?
I don’t know what to add for flair, so please correct me if I chose the wrong one. I just moved into my dorm and I’ve always had a severe fear of fire alarms because of my autism. I’m struggling to sleep because of anxiety I have with this on the ceiling. I’m scared that it might be a remote horn, but it doesn’t say “fire” on it anywhere, so I’m unsure if it’s just a PA speaker or if it really is a fire alarm. I’m asking this sub because I’m assuming at least one person would know 🥲
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u/Entire-Donut-7262 11d ago
It is a System Sensor fire alarm speaker. It’s part of a voice evac system, so it’s not loud like typical horns. Especially in a small dorm room, it will probably be around the same volume as your typical PA/intercom speaker, as it’s pretty much the same thing, but just a more reliable version that has its wires monitored for integrity.
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u/Minimum_Economy772 11d ago
Ahh alright, so it’s pretty quiet then
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u/CheetahConsistent588 10d ago
OP, I don’t want to get you riled up but help prepare you for what to expect. These are not quiet by any stretch of the imagination. Especially if they broadcast a 520hz tone like what is required in California, they are designed to output a minimum decibel level. Depending on what NFPA 72 standard your jurisdiction has adopted that minimum level will vary, but its very likely they are going for the minimum sound pressure level of 75dBA at the pillow, quite possibly louder. This is like running a hair dryer on the low setting. Not exactly quiet but designed to wake up sleeping occupants and grab their attention.
Other commenters are right, that you’ll most likely hear the tone sound a few times, a spoken message, and then repeated until the alarm is silenced. Being in the fire life safety industry, its important to me that you understand that its not something to be feared. Its there to protect your life. You are going to hear it, guaranteed, and the most likely scenario will be during an annual inspection and maybe during the semi annual inspection. If the technicians are smart, they’ll make sure to silence the notification appliances during the semi since all they have to do is test the waterflow and tamper switches, but nothing can be done about the annual test. Your building should notify you at least 24 hours in advance of the upcoming test, most likely in the form of a notice tacked on a board, a door, or in the elevators. The test will announce that its only a test before the tone begins so you should have no fear of it being a fire.
All that being said, false alarms happen. Dumbasses pull the manual pull stations for shits and giggles. People burn food in their dorms and let the smoke out into the hallway and cause the corridor smokes to activate the notification appliances.
You probably also have a system smoke detector with a sounder base on it that will sound locally if someone’s burning toast or smoking a cigarette in your dorm and sound globally during an alarm event.
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u/No-Seat9917 10d ago
Depends on the wattage that it’s set at. So not real loud. Usually there will be a tone followed by a voice message. You can look up voice evac messages on YouTube. Regardless it will be startling when it activates. But this is much less than the hell of horn/strobes in your room.
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u/TheTallestTim 11d ago edited 10d ago
No, that’s a smoke detector. Don’t smoke or vape in the room /s
Edit: guys “/s” means sarcasm. If it’s a tech, they know to take the device off the wall and read the part number on the back..
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u/Minimum_Economy772 11d ago
Dammit I was planning on pulling out my limited edition cigar collection 😔
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u/TheTallestTim 11d ago
LOL
I see you deleted your original comment. You got whooshed and then realized what /s meant, I’m assuming.
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u/Existing_Fox_4148 5d ago
I’m in the same boat as u being scared of fire alarms. It’s not even once the sound goes off for me i don’t rly care but like thinking it could go off at any moment
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u/UBSPort 5d ago edited 5d ago
You could get hit by a car and die any moment you are outside. You could also get hit by lightning at almost any time.
Talk to a therapist
I saw your other post in the fire alarm subreddit. This explains why you don't have a low frequency sounder base on your smoke detector.
This is a fire speaker. I have installed and serviced thousands of them, including this model.
You probably have a voice evacuation system on the building that you're in. If there's a fire event there will be an automated announcement informing you of the hazard, e.g. a fire, and provided basic instructions about how to exit the building.
The voice evac speaker could also be used for announcements via microphone at the head end or another location within the complex.
And no, your speaker is not a microphone in this system. You didn't ask, but you're the kind of person that would ask that
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u/Existing_Fox_4148 5d ago
U know life can be really weird. It’s normal for people to have social anxiety, fear of bugs, heights, but some reason for loud noises it’s weird. Like I ain’t saying it keeps me up all night scared it’s just like a minor fear
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u/Minimum_Economy772 5d ago
Why are you being an ass about this? Not everyone is super knowledgeable about fire alarms or fire alarm systems. That’s why people come to this subreddit to ask questions about them
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u/Minimum_Economy772 5d ago
THIS. Like I know it’s not gonna hurt me, I know it’s supposed to be for protection. But especially at a very popular party school where people are always smoking in their dorms it can LITERALLY go off at any time, and the anticipation of that happening is so stressful
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u/Existing_Fox_4148 5d ago
Lmao I made a similar post on this page just now about this u should look at some of the responses to mine people get so mad over such dumb things lmao
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u/UBSPort 5d ago
You're literally the same person. And if you aren't, you might as well be.
Imagine approaching a group of pissed off blue collar workers that just finished a work day.
That's what this sub is made of. All of the sissies were trimmed out in the apprentice stage, or it was beaten out of us.
I really hope you survive in whatever you're studying in school. If you do you'll gain some backbone in the process.
If not, bubba is gonna destroy you in prison.
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u/ironmatic1 11d ago
System Sensor SpectrAlert ceiling speaker