Fire/smoke alarms in a big[gish] house

Chris Green wrote | In addition to sorting out our consumer units I've decided to fit | some mains smoke alarms to replace the motley collection of | battery ones we have at the moment.

Good idea.

If you go to TLC-direct website and their tech info section, they have a PDF from Photain controls which describes how to set out a fire alarm system to meet the varying levels of protection. You should aim for the highest level of life protection, as people will be sleeping on the premises.

You will be using linked alarms rather than a separate control panel and sounders/detectors but the principles remain the same.

| Two smoke alarms upstairs, one at each end of the corridor, | possibly three to meet the maximum distance requirement from each | bedroom. (What is the maximum distance?)

The most onerous requirement is usually audibility at the bedhead, which usually means a sounder in each bedroom. Also, if you have smokers in bedrooms (and you may have visitors unless you enforce a strictly no-smoking house) you need a detector in each bedroom to detect smoke *before* it spreads into the corridor (escape route).

Distance between alarms in corridor should be in the alarm instructions. My Kidde one recommends alarms at each end of rooms or corridors longer than 30 ft. You will need a smoke detector at the top of the staircase though.

| Heat alarm in kitchen (this is the leg of the T downstairs).

Yes.

| Heat alarms in living rooms which are at opposite ends of the T | downstairs as we have a wood burning stove in one and an open fire | (which is used) in the other.

Optical smoke detector?

| Does this sound reasonable? Should I ask the local fire prevention | officer to come and give me some advice? | What type(s) of linked alarm do people recommend? The wiring of the | upstairs ones will be very easy with loft access. The kitchen one | will be easy as I have access from the room above but the two living | room ones might be a bit of a pain. I might resort to drilling holes | in the wall and taking the wiring outside.

For interconnection you usually need triple-and-earth from alarm to alarm. Battery back up if powered from a lighting circuit. I would suggest you also look at putting in appropriate emergency lighting units, and getting alarms with a remote hush switch, so if you do get a false alarm because of your woodburners it can be dealt with appropriately.

Owain

Won't smoke detectors in bedrooms where people smoke tend to give false alarms on their smoke?

That's not too difficult as a smoke detector at one end of the upstairs corridor will also be at the top of the stairs and I'm aiming to put one at the other end as well, it's probably around 30/40ft long.

It's probably a bit of a grey area what's the best thing to do those two rooms. Maybe you're right with an optical smoke detector, placed as far as possible from the stove/fire.

I have some triple and earth already but I might need to get some more. I have spare circuits on the CU but in some ways I think I'd almost prefer to go for running off the lighting circuit and having battery backup, it feels to me that it's less likely to lose power without someone noticing.

Thanks for the response.

Yes, it is free and most of them are quite reasonable these days. Fortunately the time when they said you had to have alarms which went off every time the cat passed wind are largely gone. There is a balance between reasonable awareness of threat and alarms constantly going off through normal household activities.

The priority should be on the upstairs alarms, these will often go off before a room alarm even if the fire starts in that room.

Living room alarms are not really that high a priority. If you have one in the hall (or even just the landing ones) they will catch any fire starting slowly such as from a cigarette (most common cause) or burning ember from a stove as fast as an alarm in the room. Room alarms only make any sense if you have self closing doors or always properly close doors at night.

Chris Green wrote | Won't smoke detectors in bedrooms where people smoke tend to | give false alarms on their smoke?

I've been told they don't react to moderate levels of cigarette smoke, but as I don't tolerate smoking in the house I don't know.

| I have some triple and earth already but I might need to get some | more. I have spare circuits on the CU but in some ways I think I'd | almost prefer to go for running off the lighting circuit and having | battery backup, it feels to me that it's less likely to lose power | without someone noticing.

Yes, I always think that part of the regs (no backup on dedicated circuit but required on shared cct) is arse about tit.

Owain

I would avoid smoke detectors in the solid fuel rooms, as you suggest. Fit heat detectors if you wish, but it is more important to ensure there are ionisation alarms in the hallways adjacent. Upstairs you can go to town for two reasons. Firstly, you want warnings close to the beds. Secondly, smoke rises, so upstairs alarms are particularly important.

I went for Kidde Fynertics brand myself. They have all important sensor types and can be integrated into alarm systems and autodiallers.

Christian.

Hi,

I would put optical alarms in the living rooms, if smoke gets in to the living room from the stove/open fire this needs to be fixed first!

I'd also consider an optical alarm in the kitchen along with the heat detector, if you get false alarms you can always take the optical one down and leave the heat one.

cheers, Pete.

cheers, Pete.