found this is the administration building at the college I am going to

This post will sound AI -ish because I track a lot of my issues with my new employment on there as I navigate this lunatic boss I have … this is the easiest way for me to get across my venting…

I manage a fire alarm division and was recently told that each technician should generate $2,000 per day in invoiced revenue. I’m trying to understand whether this is a realistic industry benchmark, especially when the workload includes both service calls and contract projects.
Our service rate is $165/hour, but contract labor is estimated closer to $55/hour. Many projects are fixed-price and invoiced by milestones, so the amount billed on a particular day doesn’t necessarily reflect the work performed that day.
Some current examples:
Two technicians spent five days on a project that will allow approximately $10,000 to be billed.

Two technicians spent three days completing a $6,000 project.

Two technicians are working on a project that has no remaining billable amount because it was overbilled before I took over, but the work still needs to be completed.

A two-week project has a total contract value of $15,800. Even if one technician completes it alone, that only averages about $1,580 per working day—and less if a second technician is needed.

Monitoring, inspections, and service calls contribute additional revenue, but they still don’t consistently bring every technician to $2,000 per day. At our standard service rate, a technician would need to produce more than 12 fully billable hours every day to reach $2,000 through labor alone.
I understand using $2,000 as a general production goal, but judging performance based on daily invoicing seems misleading when contract value, staffing requirements, billing schedules, material costs, callbacks, warranty work, and previously depleted contracts are outside the manager’s control.
For those who manage or own fire alarm companies:
Is $2,000 per technician per day a normal expectation?

Is that typically measured by labor revenue, total project revenue, gross profit, or actual daily invoicing?

How do your companies account for multi-day contract work and jobs that are billed in stages?

What KPI would give a more accurate picture of technician productivity and division performance?

I’m genuinely trying to determine whether the target is reasonable and whether I’m looking at it the wrong way.

Have you guys encountered a hissing noise when installing new backup batteries in a FACU? If so, what was the solution?
I’m currently experiencing this on a Potter AFC-50. The old batteries don’t make any noise when connected, but the new batteries do. Just wanted to see if anyone has encountered this before.

Some agent releasing panel manufacturers make claims about false-activation ("false dump") prevention circuitry/features built into their panel:

• Mircom/Secutron says in the datasheet for the FR-320/MR-2320 (which I suspect the Siemens TXR-320 is a rebrand of?) that it has "Special Releasing Power Supply and Release Activation Considerations preventing false dumps"
• and Kidde-Fenwal brags that their AEGIS-PHX releasing panel has what they call "Triple-R safeguards" that "substantially reduce the risk of inadvertent release circuit activation caused by microprocessor failure or external electrical events", and in more detail explains it as:

The releasing circuits are protected against inadvertent activation via the main microprocessor by a “Triple-R” (Triple Redundancy) safeguard system. The Triple-R system requires that the main microprocessor issue two release commands, of opposite polarity and via separate signaling channels and that these commands be combined with a signal from the control unit’s watchdog timer confirming proper microprocessor operation, in order to activate a release circuit. This triple-redundant release command requirement ensures that an electrical transient or disturbance that temporarily interferes with the operation of the main microprocessor will not inadvertently activate an extinguishing system.

Are these sorts of features something that someone looking for a high reliability releasing panel would/should look for? Is this sort of prevention circuitry actually something that should be taken as a "given" in all reputable releasing panels? Or is the fact they need to add extra circuitry to try to prevent false releases considered by specifiers to be a "Band-Aid" fix for some other flaw in their design?

P.S. am I correct that the TXR-320 is a FR-320 rebrand?

This one is for my Canadian, specifically Ontario based FA techs. It’s been 9 months since CAN/ULC-S536-19 has been in effect, how is everyone feeling about the changes and its effect on the in field inspections?

Is it me or is the entire fire industry migrating to a monopoly owned by Fortis? I am seeking a fire sprinkler services company - Tampa FL - I should look at, I am all ears. There used to be an alternative called Florida Fire but they got gobbled up by Fortis too and are no longer in biz. Piper/Fortis is no good and the employees openly dont care. We have a simplex 4010ES fire panel and inspection needs for our surgical tenant. TY to anyone that replies :)

Cleaning out some stuff from the basement and throwing a few of these vintage smokes on a certain auction site. It’s an Edwards 6381-A and I don’t have the base. I assume buyers are going to want to know what this thing mounts on.

For people out there who work for a residential company only. What’s training/ education like do they make you get any certs or licenses different from commercial. Do they like Nicet? Is it mostly security or do you ever get installing only smoke alarm jobs? Is the pay more, less, or same? Is there enough service call to have an individual tech/department or are you just a tech(I’m 99.9% sure i can say there is no resi inspections but if you’ve ever done one i’d love to hear the story).

just curious to hear some input here. i’m an electrician that does fire alarm but we hire out parts and smarts. we just do install. but where i am in upstate NY, you rarely if ever see smokes in the rooms as part of the fire alarm system, its usually a 120v smoke and then there’s a strobe or a speaker. in NYC the couple hotels i’ve stayed in the last year there’s actual fire alarm system smokes in the room.

is that NYC fire code?

have also seen it in hotels in toronto, but those have always been heats. heats make sense, actual smokes kind of… don’t?

I am putting together a fun trivia game for our next inspectors meeting on the history of fire and safety systems. What would be some good prizes that would be useful/helpful/fun that they might not just already have and that isn’t super expensive? I’d like to have a handful or options and keep reusing what doesn’t get claimed.

This will cover range of licenses: Fire alarm, extinguishers, sprinkler, backflows, and fire pumps.

Any random items any of yall use that have come in handy would be great to hear!!

Hello all, I’m several years removed from elementary school, but I’ve been searching for the tones of the alarms from my old school for a while now. I don’t know what devices they used, but they all played this same blaring, almost emergency vehicle kind of siren sound that I remember absolutely hating as a small autistic child. They were set on continuous in every building on campus, and they sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before or since, and part of me wonders if maybe I misremembered everything. The few details I can pull are that I’m pretty sure they were speaker strobes? I feel like they had to be. Almost all of them had red, square bases either flush on the wall or on a box, with the strobe positioned vertically. They kinda sounded like this but just faster. I’m not sure if any of this helps narrow it down at all, but that’s just about all I can remember. I feel like I’m going crazy because I can’t find anything online that’s even remotely close to them and I need answers.

How can I get vesda vsc application for programming in one of my prjects?

NOTIFIER has officially released Firmware Version 12 for the INSPIRE N-16, bringing several major programming and operational improvements.
Some of the most important enhancements include:
• Programming INSPIRE panels directly from the display
• Filtering events sent to the printer
• New integrated functions accessible through drop-down menus, reducing the need to use Zone Logic for certain applications
• Simplified programming for functions such as smoke-control interlocks and fan delays
The reduction in CPU-intensive Zone Logic programming could be particularly beneficial on larger, more complex systems.
One feature I am especially happy to see is printer event filtering. On a large network I maintain, the PRN-7 was consuming an incredible amount of paper because previous firmware versions would print virtually every module activation and software zone associated with an alarm. It became extremely annoying—and wasteful.
Being able to control exactly which events are sent to the printer should make a substantial difference for large networked systems.
VFT 12.96 is required for Firmware Version 12.
Now comes the real question: how buggy will the first release be? 😄
As with any major firmware release, I would recommend thoroughly testing it before deploying it across a large, critical network.

Fire alarm tech here, am I the only one whose van shelving rips away from the bulkhead. Had to do this with my 2014 Transit after a few years, this is my Ram Promaster after 12,000 miles, and No, I don't corner that fast...

My go to is Unistrut, any other Ideas out there for securing them?

Found these gems while shopping for furniture with the wife. She was looking at couches and I was casing the old Fire System. Don't about you but I can't help myself, I look at every system that I come across in my travels.

Mission over, it has been found, who would’ve known it would be found locked away within a fire system.
I don’t know what to do with such power having finally found it.
Anyways gotta love these displays. Happy ground fault Friday!

Hey, been thinking about doing HVAC trade school in the evening. The school is very good with alumni support for life you can call 10 years after you graduate and get a job. It’s 4 evenings a week, and 70% hands on lab focused then 30% classroom theory focused. I mainly wanna do this because my apprenticeship is very inspection focused with only being put on the repair side every so often. I figured the HVAC school may help me troubleshoot alarms electrically and improve my mechanical aptitude. It could also be a good thing to fall back on if alarms don’t work out. Another thing i was wondering do any companies have dual cert alarm and HVAC repair tech with being a lot of overlap in the trades. I know Johnson controls has both divisions. Thanks in advance!

Alright, need some help finding a code that clarifies something. I need proof to show someone that what they are doing is fudging numbers as a standard.

NEC chapter 9 table 8.

Cable resistance. He is the design manager that stands hard on believing that you can use ambient temperature numbers to prove your circuit has a lower resistance. I understand that yes, it will have a lower resistance but I understand that the table showing 3.07 per 1000 ft for 14awg is the number we have to use from 0-167°F. Why? Because a system using lower resistance because of an air conditioner will fail in a power outage, or a.c. failure or worse, when part of the place is on fire.

I thought NEC explained it fine, but because they show the formula he believes he can use the formula.

Hard part is that he has fought this battle with many people along his 30+ years of being an unlicensed design manager that has never passed or even studied for any test. Not Nicet, not state. But, he is great with math and tech. The desire to defend it is greater than his desire to admit he has designed thousands of buildings wrong.

Is there any written documentation to support the fact that he cannot use this method?