Upgraded Protection

Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM

In Cincinnati, when one says “school's out,” it has a whole different meaning. That's because all 65 schools in the Cincinnati Public School District — encompassing preschool through grade 12 — are part of a massive, $1-billion Facilities Master Plan that will completely change the face of the city's educational infrastructure. The plan, initiated back in 2002, calls for many of the buildings to be extensively renovated — all the way down to the plumbing and electrical work — along with a number of new schools that will be constructed from the ground up.

When this ambitious undertaking is finished, it will produce 51 schools in the Cincinnati public school system, all of which will either be heavily refurbished or newly constructed. The new schools will provide outstanding facilities for the more than 32,000 students who make up the system. The old schools, indeed, are out.

A critical aspect of this effort was the replacement or installation of new state-of-the-art fire protection systems.

“Because the state of Ohio was going to co-fund this project, we had to be sure that we secured bids from at least three different fire system manufacturers,” says Michael Burson, facilities director for the Cincinnati Public School District. “We assumed that our previous manufacturer would get at least some of the business, but we were determined to carefully review competitive systems based on a number of criteria, including performance, ease-of-use, maintenance and price.”

As the school venture gained momentum, Burson, his assistant Bill Moerhing and Jeff Hetzer, an electrician for the properties, selected five manufacturers that would be listed in the specs for each job (a single school or a group of schools).

The project was going relatively smoothly until two years ago, when it was announced that five additional schools would be constructed. A subsequent request-for-bid was sent out for the procurement and installation of the fire-protection systems in these facilities. Eric Ruffin, a co-owner of ABEL Building Systems, a local provider of top-level security and fire safety solutions, decided to participate in the bidding process.

Ruffin was no stranger to the project. His company holds the maintenance and monitoring contract for the existing fire equipment in all of Cincinnati's public schools.

Ruffin had recently been introduced to Silent Knight, part of the Honeywell Life Safety group, Northford, Conn., and a provider of industry-wide compatible fire alarm solutions for small and mid-size institutions and commercial sites. He had installed some of Silent Knight's peripheral devices such as power boosters but had never worked with the main panels — the “heart” of all Silent Knight systems.

“Our company has worked with a variety of fire protection equipment over the seven years we've been in business,” Ruffin says, who performs the system installation functions for ABEL, along with customer training. “But we really didn't have a system of our own that we could provide to the Cincinnati school district. We looked at a number of different products but ultimately chose Silent Knight for several reasons.”

“To begin with, it is a high-quality product, no question. It is also very user-friendly and simpler to install than many other systems. But more importantly, Silent Knight systems are non-proprietary, meaning that they can be serviced by virtually any company. We know we'll provide a superior level of service for this project, but if for some reason the client wanted to make a change, they would have no trouble doing it.”

Ruffin had also discovered that Silent Knight systems were effective options for use in larger buildings and high-rises, not just smaller facilities. In addition, the ability to integrate audio into the system was a major plus.

Armed with information about this new-found offering, Ruffin approached the architects and engineers responsible for developing the specifications for the five soon-to-be-built schools. He demonstrated the features and benefits of the Silent Knight line, conducting engineering visits, training them on the product and even providing a cost analysis to highlight the system's value.

In the end, the Silent Knight system — and ABEL Building Systems — was accepted as one of the systems that would be considered, not only for this five-school enterprise but for future projects as well. The system's impressive credentials, and the fact that the system had the lowest life-cycle cost swung the decision in ABEL's favor. Plus, with Burson's and Hetzer's familiarity with Ruffin's previous work within the school system, the company was awarded the work for the five schools, which incorporated not only the installation of all fire protection equipment but the wiring and electrical work to boot.

The first of the schools to be tackled was the Frederick Douglass School, which was ready for students for the 2007-2008 year. The system that ABEL installed in Douglass uses Silent Knight's Farenhyt IFP-1000 panel with a 5495 addressable power supply as its “centerpiece.” The Farenhyt IFP-1000 is an intelligent analog/addressable fire alarm control panel that is suitable for mid- to large-sized jobs such as schools and universities and offers more than 1,000 addressable points. It features one built-in signaling line circuit (SLC) that supports the addition of up to seven 5815XL SLCs. The panel's analog addressable technology enhances reliability, pinpoints problem areas and reduces false alarms. Plus, it supports up to 792 System Sensor IDP detectors and 792 IDP modules, or 1016 Hochiki devices.

Complementing the IFP-1000 panel are dual-action pull stations, addressable smoke detectors, heat detectors, sub-detectors with remote test stations and numerous horn strobes. Sprinkler systems will be featured in all of the new schools, eliminating the need for area detection. This configuration will be installed in the four other schools during the construction process.

The fact that the Silent Knight product was chosen for these new schools does not surprise Ruffin, given the school system's focus on quality, along with its refusal to cut corners.

“We've provided a ton of technical support to the Cincinnati schools, and during that time, we've seen them add a number of enhancements like pull station covers, wire guards over the horn strobes, things like that,” he says. “They are always looking for ways to improve the quality and safety of their fire-protection systems. For them it's about doing things all the way or not at all. Their decision to begin using Silent Knight dovetails perfectly with that philosophy.”

Ruffin will have some stiff competition. The school system will continue to put out competitive bids for each job, per the state's requirements.

Ruffin remains optimistic that Silent Knight's Farenhyt systems will figure prominently in the school's system's future plans.

“I do frequently showcase Silent Knight products with architects and engineers,” he says. “They are blown away with the capabilities. The more people that see these systems, the more people are going to want them.”

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© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

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