Integrated fire system cuts costs for new hospital
The integration of the fire detection and alarm system with control of smoke dampers at the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham is estimated to have reduced the overall project cost by around £100 000. The Protec Algo-Tec system uses smoke damper interfaces to control 1500 dampers in the acute wind and a further 135 in the mental health unit. The smoke damper interfaces allow the control of these devices to utilise the fire detection and alarm loop and avoid the need for separate power supplies, distribution boards and additional circuit protection.
The steel and glass towers of this new hospital dominate the city’s skyline. It will have the largest single-floor critical-care unit in the world, with 100 beds.
Service personnel will be treated in single rooms or 4-bed bays in a 30-bed military unit in the trauma and orthopaedics ward. This ward will have additional features for the use of service personnel that will cater for their specific requirements within a secure military environment.
The integration of the smoke damper system means that via the graphics on a PC operators can see all areas, and dampers can be closed to prevent smoke and toxic fumes spreading, enabling people in other areas to leave safely.
In all, 237 km of cable was used across the site to connect over 25 000 components such as manual control points, sounders, bases, panels, interfaces, beacons etc. — all Protec 6000 series equipment.
To control the system, there are 142 Protec Algo-Tec 6400 LCD loop-driven panels at specific nurse stations through out the acute and mental health buildings. The complete network supports four graphics stations.
A voice evacuation public-address system is linked to the fire-detection system to make this a truly integrated network and achieve further cost savings.
