Residential
Fire Protection
What’s Possible?
Chris Roberts
President, GHS
croberts@ghscompanies.com
Cell 972-672-5907
Residential Fire Protection
To know where
you’re going…
You must know
where you’ve
been…
Residential Fire Protection
The first single station
smoke alarms were made
available to the public in
the early 1970’s. By 1976,
the technology had been
redesigned and the cost
was low enough that
every home could own
one. Prior to 1989, every
home was either
recommended or required
to have at least one in the
hallway.
Residential Fire Protection
In 1989, newly
constructed residential
homes were required to
have interconnected
(hardwired) smoke alarms
on every level of the home
and outside the sleeping
areas. With
interconnected smoke
alarms, all the smoke
alarms will sound if any
individual smoke alarm
detects smoke.
Residential Fire Protection
In 1993, the standard
required the installation of
hardwired smoke alarms
inside bedrooms or
sleeping areas. Smoke
alarms were required in
bedrooms to address the
concern associated with
sound level losses when
occupants sleep with the
bedroom doors closed.
Residential Fire Protection
In 1996, the requirement
to have hardwired smoke
alarms with battery backup in new construction
was added to address
non-operability during
power outages.
The Code saves lives.
Member of NFPA
Member of Education Section
Alternate on NFPA 720
Carbon Monoxide Detection
I believe in Codes…
I believe in smoke alarms…
I believe it all saves lives…
But the codes are
often reactionary…
or at least they
have been my
whole career… and
the law can slow
the reaction time
to a snail’s pace.
Here’s what the
NFPA says…
40% of fire deaths occurred with an
operating smoke alarm…
23% of fire deaths occurred with a
smoke alarm that wasn’t operating…
37% of fire deaths occurred with no
smoke alarm…
The death rate was much higher in
fires in which a smoke alarm was
present but did not operate (1.94 out
of 100) than it was in home fires with
no smoke alarms at all…
So the experts
and the facts back
up what I am
going to share…
My personal
experience from a
small sampling of
homes in the U.S.
Our network of Dealers
are in over 36,000 Homes
Per Year
Over Half Present…
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Dead or missing
batteries
Disconnected wires
dangling from the ceiling
Old Code Minimums
New Style vs Old Style
36,000 Homes
Per Year
9 out of 10 Present
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No Escape Plan
No Meeting Place
Misconceptions
36,000 Homes
Per Year
Nearly All
•
Are missing something…
In addition to the
lack of
residential
sprinklers,
there are
many missing
pieces…
I didn’t come to
share a problem
without a solution!
Here’s What’s Possible
Today!
• Wireless Interconnectivity which allows for retrofitting as
well as additional products as technology improves
• Reliability without consumer responsibility
– Self Diagnostics
– Long Life Batteries
– Microprocessors
• Education and Awareness through personal coaching
• Early warning of fires in the rooms of origin
Crossfire Smoke
Crossfire Heat
Crossfire Carbon Monoxide
CFS10 Smoke Alarm
• Photoelectric Sensitivity at 2.1% obscuration
• Removable, cleanable smoke chamber
• Required protection for bedrooms and hallways
• Additional protection for living rooms, dining rooms and
other occupied spaces.
• Will communicate with all devices on the Crossfire
network
CFH10 Heat Alarm
• Made for hard to protect areas – Attics, Garages, Utility
Rooms and Kitchens (The common places where fires
can start)
• Can handle extreme temperature ranges in these nonclimate controlled spaces… Our San Diego based
engineers were shocked that attics can go below 0°
• Will communicate with all devices on the Crossfire
network
CFCO10 Carbon Monoxide Alarm
• Required/Recommended protection on every floor of the
house (including basements)
• Installation not sensitive to wall or ceiling position. Can
be used as an easy access Test/Silence button for the
whole network
• Alarms with the T-4 Warning pattern for an easy to
distinguish signal
• Will communicate with all devices on the Crossfire
network
• Fastest reaction time of all CO alarms on the market due
to our quartz crystal oscillator (time keeping device)
All Units have the following features…
• Advanced Feature Highlights:
– 10 Year UL Certification
– Wireless communication with dual frequency
hopping
– Lithium Manganese battery that will last the life of
the alarm
– Heat sensor for Rate of Rise and Fixed
Temperature (Heat only is field programmable)
– 100 dB horn achieves 89 dB horn at 10 feet
– Thick walled, flame retardant ABS and
Polycarbonate plastic housing
– Quartz Crystal Oscillator
– Semi Conductor Driven Micro Processor
What’s really possible?
• The Crossfire’s radio frequencies are 905.2MHz and 913.2MHz.
The radio “hops” between the two frequencies in order to ensure the
signal gets through to the other alarms on the network
• The alarm only transmits when being tested or during an actual
warning situation…therefore it cannot possibly interfere with other
electronics in the house (i.e. garage door openers of internet
routers)
• The alarm’s UL tested range is 200 ft in open space.
• If an alarm initiates a fire or CO signal, its red Fire (or CO Warning)
light will flash every 32 seconds for three days (no chirping). This
can help you locate an alarm that has false alarmed. Pressing the
Silence/Test button will stop this.
Quality US Manufacturing
• All alarms are “burned in” for 16 hours while running the software at
a rate 40X faster than normal operation. This process is part of our
quality control procedure to weed out alarms that would die of
electronic “infant mortality”. No burning or raised temperatures are
involved.
2015 and
beyond…
The Bed Shaker
Or more formally known as the
Annunciating Accessory for the
Hearing Impaired
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520 Hz Square Wave Horn
Vibrating “Puck” that gets inserted between
the mattress and box springs
NOT an alarm…has no detection capability
Triggered by the Crossfire radio signal
Binds into the network the same way as any
new alarm
Uses the same display as the Crossfire
A Silence/Test button that functions in the
same way as the Crossfire
The Base Station
• Features:
– text messages
– emails
– relay room information
– relay maintenance messages:
low battery, dirty chamber,
etc.
• Wi-Fi and/or cellular networks to
relay information
• Works with existing Crossfire
alarms
It’s Not About Pretty Lights!
•
Fire safety isn’t improved by all the fancy lights and voices coming from
an alarm.
•
If a piezo horn isn’t working, it’s doubtful a phone app is going to wake
you while you sleep?
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Fire safety is about having quality alarms in the right locations!
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What is possible in today’s world is to make the finest aspects of
commercial fire detection available to homeowners without the wires
and the panels and the monitoring fees.
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It is possible to make a wireless alarm that does all these things and
lasts 10 years or even more.
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Interconnected protection for kitchens, attics, garages, basements and
utility rooms? These are places where fires commonly start.
Thank You!
Chris Roberts
President, GHS
croberts@ghscompanies.com
Cell 972-672-5907