New England College Elevates Fire Safety Standards
Installs NOTIFIER Intelligent Fire Systems in 17 Buildings

     Media Contact: Jayson.Kneen@Honeywell.com

For over 50 years, New England College (NEC) of Henniker, NH has helped students to reach their full academic, personal and social potential. With the school's undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, student minds have been thriving at New England College. The fire system, however, was not.
Since becoming Director of Operations and Life Safety at the school, Gary Harper has been responsible for improving safety, particularly fire safety, at NEC.

Harper explains, "When I arrived at NEC 5 years ago, the schools’ Board of Trustees, President and senior administration were in agreement that they wanted to make safety/fire safety a top priority. "NEC basically had a menagerie of different systems throughout the school. As we had 'local-only' detectors in the resident rooms, there was no way to pinpoint the source of an alarm. And often the fire department was dispatched to the campus unnecessarily because the school had no central monitoring capability at these locations." The problem was that, while the existing fire systems met the required codes, they were not up to NEC’s recently elevated standards.

Harper had been in facilities management for 15 years, and had worked with NOTIFIER, a world-leading manufacturer of fire systems and technology and part of the Honeywell (NYSE: HON) Life Safety Group, throughout this period.

“I’ve long been a fan of NOTIFIER’s intelligent system capabilities, and had previously incorporated NOTIFIER systems into a number of private education and daycare centers where I had supervised facilities management processes,” Harper said. “As New England College is comprised of many different buildings of varied sizes and shapes, I felt that the customizable nature of NOTIFIER products was an ideal solution for the school.”

Harper contacted BK Systems, a local NOTIFIER distributor based in Goffstown, NH with over 20 years experience selling and installing the complete line of NOTIFIER fire safety products. Harper had worked with BK Systems in the past, and liked both the products and service they provided.
Karl Klardie, president of BK Systems recommended a configuration that included NOTIFIER’s NFS-320 and NFS2-640 intelligent fire alarm control panels, in conjunction with NOTIFIER’s ONYX® Digital Voice Command (DVC) and an array of smoke detectors, pull stations, and notification appliances to complete the system.

“It was clear that NEC needed a system with the intelligence to pinpoint the location of problems and eliminate nuisance alarms, the flexibility to accommodate a spectrum of different buildings, and a voice evacuation capability that would ensure the safety of students, faculty and visitors. A system based around NOTIFIER control panels in every building was a natural solution,” said Klardie.

In the smaller buildings on campus, BK Systems installed the NFS-320 intelligent fire alarm control panel, which is capable of supporting up to 318 intelligent devices. Whereas, a NOTIFIER NFS2-640 intelligent control panel, which supports up to 636 intelligent devices, was installed in each of the larger buildings being retrofitted. The NFS2-640’s also features an integrated voice evacuation system, ONYX Digital Voice Command (DVC), providing the school with a state-of-the-art emergency communication system capable of broadcasting multiple, distinct messages throughout an entire building or multiple buildings. Both panels also come equipped with NOTIFIER’s patented ONYX Intelligent Sensing technology, which ensures a faster response to actual smoke and heat conditions while substantially reducing false alarms.

Harper described how the system addresses the nuisance alarm issue. He said, “In the past, when students tampered with a “local-only” detector in their resident room, we would have no indication of tampering and there was no way to validate the problem. Now with the NOTIFIER system, any time a student tampers with a room detector, a “trouble signal” is sent to a central monitoring company. And because the control panel indicates the exact source of the trouble condition, we can quickly investigate and address the situation. It also prevents unnecessary visits from the fire department. In the past we had to scour the building to locate the problem – neither a safe nor effective method.”

New England College has thirty-four buildings and, by the end of 2008, NOTIFIER systems will be installed in fifty percent of them. “We started our installation process in the school’s skating rink/gym facility,” said Klardie. “We then moved on to the eight residential halls, and are currently installing the fire safety system in the science building. The vast majority of the installation work is, and has been, performed during the summers when the buildings are empty, making it imperative that projects are completed in timely fashion to meet the stringent deadlines. But thus far, as expected, we’re right on schedule.”

According to Harper, the NOTIFIER systems are currently meeting all of NEC’s expectations…not to mention the fire officials’. He said, “The local fire department supports NEC and its NOTIFIER relationship. They love the intelligence of the NOTIFIER system, as it makes their jobs easier when visiting the campus to access a problem.”

With just about fifty percent of the fire alarm upgrade project complete, and the remaining fifty percent in the planning stages, now New England College can boast the highest level of fire safety standards available thanks to BK Systems and NOTIFIER.