I am fitting new, linked smoke (or heat in kitchen) alarms. After reading the words of wisdom here and elsewhere I am (famous last words) fairly confident about wiring them. But I thought I might as well also meet the current regs on their *location* and that has me stumped.
Approved document B1 looks easy peasy for a small Victorian terrace: interlinked detectors on each storey within 7.5m of each room.
On the other hand lots of other documents (eg the 2002 Onsite Guide) say there should be an alarm within 3 metres of any bedroom door. That's a bit tougher in a typically long, thin house. But, thinks I, it's not a problem in practice as I was always planning on a detector in the small bedroom at the back of the house (because it doubles as study with assorted PCs often left on unattended). But hang on: does it count if it is *within* the bedroom rather than in the circulation space outside? I'd be very grateful for pointers to the answer to that question.
On the third hand, if I put a detector outside the door to that bedroom but within 3 metres it will be less than 3 metres from the bathroom door and several guidance documents say that is a no-no. Can anyone point me to the source of that rule and/or whether it trumps the "3 metres from the bedroom" rule please?
I guess the underlying principles in this are: you need alarms in enough places to detect fires, and near enough to people to wake them, but not where false alarms will lead people to disable them. But the way it is articulated in the guidance has defeated me. And while there may be rules for the pros which avoid the Catch 22, there's no way I'm giving the BSI £180 for BS 5839-6:2004. (So much for making the law accessible!)