smoke machines and smoke detectors

[J Pearce]

We use caps in our theatre. I hate the practice as it takes a stupid amount of time and really limits when we can use smoke/haze.

 

I believe the alarm company advised the school to use the caps when the (dedicated peforming arts) building (whose construction involved a major electrical stage contractor) was first opened.

 

For the sake of an extra bit of cable we could have had isolatable sensors, but the sensors share the cable run with the call points, which have to be active under the terms of our license.

[Air1993]

in the tech box there is a timed swhich which turns the theatre detectors but not the back stage rat run and seen dock which are all open for shows and its the back stage detectors are not conneted to the swich

[Area21]

The fitting of fire detection sensors is to prevent an early warning of a fire or potential fire. There are two basic types one being a smoke detector which are most common and the other is a heat detector use in areas that may have forms of smoke, dust and steam such as kitchens, film, photo, workshops where welding take place and theater studios. The advise from the fire service would be to not interfere with the fitted sensors. However as someone has already correctly pointed out there are situations where smoke sensors can be 'capped' off using a specific thin plastic cap, but when this happens there must be alternative controls as identified through an assessment of risk to ensure a fire is correctly and quickly detected. To not have this in place would place you at the mercy of the courts if any thing was to happen. In most cases these sensors caps fitted to smoke sensors would render the sensor as a heat sensor, but the heat sensors as you can expect would only trigger with heat from a fire when the fire had taken hold. Where as the smoke sensors are triggered by smoldering before a fire takes hold and thus provide an early warning of a potential fire in most cases.

Seek advance from the local fire service would be my recommendations before changing any current controls. Call them they will be more than welcome to attend and speak to you as fire prevention is their aim.

Hope this has been helpful.