Cooper Notification: New LED appliances are 'industry's first'

POMPANO BEACH, Fla.—Advanced Fire & Security, based here, is eager to start installing Cooper Notification's new LED notification appliances for reasons that include energy efficiency, ease of installation and a smaller profile, according to the company's owners.

“We think it is going to make a difference because there is a much lower draw of current … and the style of the device is a smaller, more sleek design which will give it a much nicer application,” Advanced Fire President Eric Rode told Security Systems News.

Laura Rode, company VP, added, “It's an exciting new technology in the industry.”

Cooper Notification, a Long Branch, N.J.-based supplier of life safety and mass notification system solutions, in May announced the launch of what it billed as “the industry's first LED notification appliances.” The company said its Wheelock Exceder Series has expanded “to include LED horn strobes, strobes and horns in one of the smallest, most compact single gang designs.”

In a news release, the company said the appliances are “the first LED notification appliances to be UL-listed for both public and private mode life safety applications.”

 Cooper Notification said its “patented technology provides the industry's lowest current draw. It allows for energy savings of up to 52 percent compared to competitive models. Using LED as the strobe light source, the product incorporates high-efficiency optics to minimize current draw. This allows for a greater number of appliances on the notification appliance circuit and fewer power supplies.”

Advanced Fire & Security, a privately owned, 11-year-old company with 96 employees, was expected to be the first company to receive an order of the devices, the Rodes told SSN in late May.

Eric Rode said he believes the LED technology is superior to traditional Xenon strobes—essentially glass tubes with Xenon gas inside that he said are currently in fire alarm devices.

“Your failure rate is going to be greatly reduced,” he said of the LED devices. “And the light is a cleaner light as well, it's a bluer-looking light.”

Also, he said, while most circuits can handle only about 15 devices, “this circuit now can handle up to 30, so instead of running two full circuits you can run one, so in that regard you save money.”

Laura Rode added, “It's a single-gang box instead of double-sized box, so that's a reduced cost there.”

Cooper Notification said, “Installers will benefit from a wide range of features” with the devices that include “several candela settings … convenient mounting options and the ability to change settings without a single tool–all designed to reduce total cost of ownership.”

And the company said the Exceder devices “feature one of the industry's smallest footprints along with a sleek, modern low-profile design.”

“An architect will appreciate it because it doesn't look so obtrusive on the wall,” Laura Rode said. “It's going to look much nicer—it's not going to have such a commercial look to it.”

Advanced Fire & Security serves a variety of verticals in southern Florida, including high rises and hotels. It recently completed jobs at two five-star hotels: the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, a combination of new construction and retrofit, and the newly constructed St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort, the Rodes said.