When a manufacturer “recommends” using a certain kind of wire and the contractor decides to run something altogether different, how should a Verifier address this?
In order to answer this question in the correct context, let’s use a recent example I came across. The contractor elected to install an addressable fire alarm system in this large warehouse project in Richmond. The fire alarm installation instructions hadn’t even been “cracked” when we arrived to terminate the telephone line to the newly commissioned fire alarm communicator, yet all the necessary wire had been run and the panel was essentially ready for final terminations and start-up. The remote annunciator was located over 150 metres away and mounted external to the building. The contractor had pulled a single 18/5 fire cable and four 12 gauge wires from the fire alarm control to the annunciator location. He had also terminated all of the wiring into the bottom of the control panel’s back-box (on my advise this last bit was, at least, corrected). When I showed him the relevant pages in the manual, he made a comment that the installation was as he was instructed to do. I didn’t argue
Related Questions
- When a manufacturer "recommends" using a certain kind of wire and the contractor decides to run something alltogether different, how should a Verifier address this?
- Are there any adverse affects if the wire were to run long distances in conduits extending in different directions?
- Why would one contractor recommend one unit while another one recommends a different unit?
