Aegis Melville Aged Care
Ampac protects residential aged care facility in Melville, Western Australia
Aegis Melville Aged Care is a new state of the art establishment that is staffed by dedicated and highly trained nursing care personnel and employs the most advanced technology and equipment for residents comfort and safety, and for maintaining their independence.
Ampac provided a fire detection and emergency warning system for the establishment.
The fire detection system utilised Ampac's FireFinder Fire Alarm Control Panel and was comprised of...
- 2 x Analogue Addressable Loops compatible with the XP95/Discovery range of detectors.
- 4 x Fan Controls to operate the fire fans via addressable interfaces as per AS 1668.
- 4 x Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Devices
- All of which is powered by a 5 Amp power supply and battery-backed according to AS 1670.1.
The emergency warning system utlised Ampac's EV3000 system and was comprised of...
- 1 x 40 Watt Amplifier to provide the functionality of public address and emergency tones for the orderly evacuation of the building.
- 3 x Warden Intercom Phones to facilitate the evacuation procedure.
- 1 x Remote Paging Console for Remote Public Address paging.
- All of which is powered by the 6A power supply and battery-backed according to AS 1670.4.
One of the challenges when dealing with Aged Care facilities is to provide a solution that reduces the consequence of an unwanted alarm. Ampac was able to achieve this through the use of Alarm Acknowledgment Facility Devices.
The Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Device is a loop-powered addressable device that helps reduce the costly consequence of an unwanted alarm. When an alarm condition occurs in a room as a result of an incipient fire, the sounder at the local Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Device is activated. At this stage, the signal to the fire brigade and emergency warning system is inhibited and the 0 to 60 second “Alarm Acknowledgement Period” is commenced.
During the alarm acknowledgment period, the occupant of the room can acknowledge the alarm by pressing the silence button located on the Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Device. Acknowledging the alarm will silence the local sounder and activate the 0 to 180 second “Investigate Period”. At the expiry of the investigation period, if the alarm still exists, a fire alarm will be announced which will activate the signal to the fire brigade and emergency warning system.
A fire alarm will also be announced if the alarm is not acknowledged within the “Alarm Acknowledgement Period”. The Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Device has a short circuit isolator built-in, which provides a high level of system integrity when installed on the addressable detector loop. The circuitry is self-resetting in the event the fault condition is removed. The Alarm Acknowledgement Facility Module manages false alarm events succinctly by its unique operation of being able to differentiate between the two distinct characteristics of a fire; Smoke and Heat. The DUAL STAGE™ operation can alert the occupant or building manager of an appending risk through its early detection of smoke; In any event that either heat or no action taken from the smoke event the fire alarm panel can call the brigade.
“Working closely with Ampac we’re able to achieve the desired solution and completed the project on time.” – Matt Meaden
Image Credit: Aegis Care Group
