QUESTION:

Ken,

     I have found your emails to be very informative.  I do have a question regarding Central Stations.  Can you please explain the difference between UL Certified and FM Certified and why one is better than the other?

     Charlotte

     Mesa, AZ

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ANSWER:

    To answer this one I called upon Mark Fischer from Nationwide Digital Monitoring.  He's the company's technical expert.  Here is his answer.

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Ken:

        Both UL, FM and a relatively new comer to the industry ETL are all what are known as Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories.  Each tests and lists with their mark both products and service providers such as central stations to groups of ANSI standards.  So the basic requirements for listing under the same category are basically identical.

        FM is best known for their fire listings of but they do list central stations for burglary as well.  UL is well known for both its burglary and fire listing. ETL's central station listing program is in its early phases.

        What makes the difference as to which listing agency(s) to list with is basically determined by market.  Nationwide Digital Monitoring is Listed under several UL categories for Burglary, Fire, Protective Signaling, including UL2050 for National Industrial Security.  We have never had any agency say that they required a FM certificate and would not accept the equivalent UL document.

Mark S. Fischer VP/CTO

Nationwide Digital Monitoring Co.

(800) 221-0826 X 133