Ground Fault Light
On all fire alarm panels there is a separate ground fault light. It's a warning light.
Fire alarm systems are property protection and life-safety systems. If something goes wrong with a fire alarm system, a fire starting in the building could burn it down, and lives could be lost. It's not the annoyance of the ground fault light that you need to be concerned with; if the ground fault is not fixed, it's the possible dangers that you need to be concerned with.
Ground Fault Danger
A ground fault is an electrical leakage to the building ground - somewhere in the building. With fire alarm systems, a single ground fault (electricity leaking to building ground) usually isn't a problem. At this point though, the ground fault light on the panel comes on to warn you of danger.
The danger is that a
second ground fault can occur. A second ground fault completes the electrical circuit between the ground faults and causes one or more possible problems:
- False alarms
- Failure to detect fire
- Shorted power supplies
- Fire horns going off when nothing is happening
- Fire horns not going off when there is a fire
- Etc.
If the first ground fault is not fixed, these are all possible problems with the life-safety system. Disconnecting the Fire Alarm Control Panel (FACP) ground doesn't fix the ground fault; disconnecting the FACP ground will only prevent the fire alarm panel from warning anyone of the ground fault danger.
I suggest you contact a fire alarm service company familiar with finding and correcting
ground faults in fire alarm systems.
Douglas Krantz