Halogen spotlights a fire risk?

AFAIK they should have covers over the back end of the lamps that are fire retardant. Call the bodgers back in that wired the house under the guarantee

Any idea is this is just common sense or is it specified in some regs somewhere?

I need to be careful because technically the 2 year new build guarantee has expired even though I am the first occupier since 4 months ago. The builder has been quite receptive so far though.

Cheers James

It does, but it's not a correct one.

There are special back covers, rather like flowerpots that should be fitted to keep the insulation away and dissipate the heat.

On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:59:26 +0000, James P mused:

Both, depends on various other factors but usually the way you've got is the done way. You can get fire hoods for the downlighters which can be retrofitted.

Owain

IIRC the 10 years is for 'structural' items only - foundations, walls, floors, roof - and not services or finishes.

Thanks, just found some on the net. I can easily do this myself for the top floor lights but I am not about to start tearing up my wooden floor for the others.

It's amazing what you find in modern houses when you take a peek underneath the surface. Grrr.

Cheers James

It sounds typical, and is unlikely to be a direct fire risk in the sense of the insulation bursting into flame (loft insulation has a very good fire retardant rating). However it may overheat the fittings a bit and reduce bulb life (more of a worry if they are low voltage lights with local transformers - since it may shorten the transformer life).

Where light fittings penetrate a fire resistant layer between floors they ought to be protected with an in intumescent hood. However checking these is not as easy! The ones into the uninhabited left space are slightly less important. Traditional flower pots are one easy DIY solution for allowing the heat to dissipate on the lights that penetrate into the loft.

It's probably less of a problem on the lower floors in that there won't be insulation there.

I would take a look up in the loft, lift the insulation and look out for other naughties like cables terminated in chocolate block connectors - that type of thing.

As in the ceramic type? We have 5 halogen lights in our bathroom that enter into the loft space above. I've just cut round the insulation but never really felt it was that safe. Googling for fire retardant hoods brings up covers at £10 a go so something cheaper would be ideal.

T.

On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 15:14:25 +0000 someone who may be John Rumm wrote this:-

And also unlikely to be through a fire partition in most houses.

That's a good point - fairly reassuring.

How about this? An example of quality wiring in my new house:

I've fitted loft ones before using lengths of 4" plastic ducting (eg

If I fit my plastic ducts or flowerpots over the lights, surely that's going to absorb/deflect heat anyway? What about gluing aluminium foil or sheeting over the joist for belt and braces?

Thanks David

Well terracotta typically....

The fire retardant hood are really designed to help plug up the hole in the even of fire, thus stopping spread of smoke between floors. If you just want to keep flammable stuff at a safe distance from hot lights then the plant pot ought to do it well enough,

Oh dear.....

I would take and keep photos of everything, prepare a set and forward to the managing director of the construction company.

You might also want to consider buying a decent cable detector and runing around the walls with it to ensure that cables run vertically or horizontally from all fittings, sockets and switches. This could save an unfortunate accident in the future.

Going round and checking the wiring in fittings might not be a bad idea either.

In message , Clint Sharp writes

Not helped much by the insistence of trendy light fixture manufacturers in making such teensy ceiling plates that there's nowhere to put the contents of a ceiling rose. Then they actually suggest you use terminal block, tape it up and poke it up through the ceiling. They should be forced to incorporate proper (and accessible) electrical containment in their designs.

Geo

What about getting some of those heat resistant soldering mats that plumbers use and pin them to the affected joists. Trevor