North Road Academy, an Islamic primary school in Stoke-on-Trent, has upgraded its life-safety system using FastConvert, the conventional-to-addressable zone converter from C-TEC, according to an account from installer W R Fire & Security. The school had initially considered replacing its fire system outright, but a site survey identified a way to enhance the existing conventional system instead.
W R Fire & Security, the specialist electrical company handling the project, evaluated three upgrade routes before selecting FastConvert. Each alternative carried drawbacks that the converter was intended to avoid.
Options weighed before the upgrade
- A new conventional panel: this would have allowed zones to be separated and additional zones created, but it required extra cabling and would still have left the school with a conventional system able to report only zonal fire and fault information.
- A full re-cable: ruled out on budget grounds, with an estimated £10,000 added in materials and labour, along with greater disruption and a longer installation timeline.
- Converting the remaining six zones into loops: this would have added about a week to the installation for two engineers, plus additional cabling, materials and disruption, at an estimated extra cost of £3,000–£4,000.
FastConvert was presented as the only option that avoided all three drawbacks at once: it reuses the existing wiring, delivers a loop-based addressable system rather than a conventional one, and does so without the additional cost, labour or disruption.
How the conversion was carried out
Using the old system's wiring, the converter upgraded the school's legacy conventional system into an open-protocol CAST addressable system. According to the account, the resulting system is capable of lockdown alert functionality and internet connectivity, and can accommodate C-TEC's CAST-PRO combined fire detection and alarm devices, which the manufacturer describes as false-alarm resistant. To achieve this, two radials were combined into a single loop, with a dedicated two-loop panel installed for FastConvert.
Wayne Riley, managing director of W R Fire & Security, said the company was impressed with the converter's capabilities. He compared it with a full re-wire, which he said would have added around £10,000 to the job, or converting the remaining zones into loops, which would have cost an extra £3,000–£4,000 plus a week's extra labour for two engineers. FastConvert, he said, was the clear winner, reducing installation time, site disruption and labour costs, and saving approximately £3,500 on the project.
Riley also commented on the CAST-PRO devices, saying the company considers them superior to those of other manufacturers because the sounder/VADs and multi-sensors are built into the heads, removing the need for separate sounder bases.
The cost figures and performance comments are attributed to the installer and reflect its own assessment of the project rather than independently verified outcomes.