Edwards AE Bulletin, Door Holders and Fire Alarm

111610 November 16 2010 Door Holders and Fire Alarm Panels is more than one way to power and control door holders used with fire alarm systems operation would be when there is an alarm power would be dropped to the door which would release and close the fire doors Often this is done on a global basis alarm will drop power to all door holders but sometimes the door holders may be in groups following are some examples of how you can wire door holders with pros and cons to 1 first example may be the easiest and most common Power is taken from the panel power not signal power One leg of power is wired through the normally closed alarm Upon alarm the contact opens dropping power to the door holders draw back here is the power for the door holders will be backed up by the panel This means you will have to figure the door holders current draw into the battery which may significantly increase your battery size Door holder power does not to be battery backed up because if there is a loss of power the doors will close fail If you have multiple door holders which in turn would require you to use a larger you may want to consider using an external non battery backed up power source aux power and common alarm relay Signaling Part of UTC Fire Security 41 Woodford Ave Plainville CT 06062 800 336 4206 Web www edwardssignaling com E mail signaling techsupport fs utc com 1 of 3 2 the panel common alarm relay is still being used to control the power to the door but now the power is from an external source that is not battery backed up With this you have to be sure that the panel contacts are rated for whatever power source use The Edwards E FSC conventional and E FSA addressable series panels contacts example are rated for 24Vdc and 30Vdc respectively 1 amp aux power source and panel alarm relay 3 the E FSA addressable panel you can use an addressable relay module to control the to the door holders Because the relay module has a wider contact rating 2A 5A 120Vac you will have more choices for a power source including a simple Edwards 1500 series door holders can be powered from 24Vdc 24Vac or You can also mount the relay module wherever it convenient With this example you will have to program the E RLY relay module to activate during an alarm the alarm relay in the panel automatically activates upon any alarm power source and addressable relay Signaling Part of UTC Fire Security 41 Woodford Ave Plainville CT 06062 800 336 4206 Web www edwardssignaling com E mail signaling techsupport fs utc com 2 of 3 these are not the only ways to control door holders the basic operation will be the same Drop power to door holders to close the fire doors during an alarm Whichever you choose be sure not to exceed the relay contact rating or the total current available the power source Also note that because the door holders will operate in safe the circuit wiring does not have to be supervised a break in the wiring will drop power holders closing the door additional information refer to the fire alarm panel manual and device installation Signaling Part of UTC Fire Security 41 Woodford Ave Plainville CT 06062 800 336 4206 Web www edwardssignaling com E mail signaling techsupport fs utc com 3 of 3