Re: DSC Maxsys PC 4020 Reporting Probs. UPDATE

["Robert L. Bass" <robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Only if you're connecting them to a listed
> and *certified* fire alarm *system*...

That seems to be our main point of disagreement on this, Frank.  I believe
that in order to connect smoke detectors to an alarm control panel in the
USA (well, any place in the US code where applies) you must use only
equipment which is listed for the purpose.  I've never found any exception
to this in code.  As to certification, that only applies to a miniscule
fraction of all installed systems.  The vast majority of fire alarms are not
certified at all, regardless what is used.  Yet all of them are required to
follow code.

> Most home security panels don't qualify as
> *fire alarms* and they never will...

I disagree.  Most of the residential security systems which I installed in
the US for decades have been listed for residential fire.  A few models were
even listed for commercial fire alarm.  None were certified because I wasn't
interested in certification (most residential clients' insurers don't
require it).

> If you read your original message in the post
> "Fireside Chat", you go on and on about how
> you can't do this to a listed fire alarm system.

That's not an accurate characterization, Frank.  I explained in three short
paragraphs what was being put forward and why I believe it's a mistake.

> Al was not speaking about this type of system.

You see, that's where we differ.  In the USA to monitor smokes with an alarm
panel you need to use a panel that is listed for fire alarm.  Certainly
there are people who do so using non-listed panels but their work is not
code compliant and would not pass inmspection by a knowledgeable AHJ.

> You then went on to say that he was *totally wrong*

Read the post again, please.

> Yeah.  And until I posted the specific chapter
> and verse in the NEC about the fact that it
> *is* permissible to connect your home smoke
> alarms to a security control you kept telling
> me it was "against code"...

That is not what I said.  I stated that the device used must be listed for
the purpose.