Smoke alarms

[greencreeper]

They were selling them off at 1/2 price at B&Q, so I bought 4 - 1x basic ionisation, 2x ionisation with light and hush button, and 1x photoelectric. I'm just pondering where to put them. There's not a lot of detailed guidance available on the siting of alarms. I guess I ought to have one on each floor. The kitchen is a problem because of the low ceiling. I was wondering about putting one of the hush ones at the top of the stairs leading from the kitchen? I could then put the basic one in the living room. The photoelectric would be good outside the main bedroom - but I worry about the bathroom being too close. The final one would go in the attic, on the hallway ceiling.

I'm also wondering about the different sorts of fire - flaming v slow burning. Is a flaming fire more common in a kitchen, say?? And how does that affect the choice and placement of a smoke alarm.

The two attic bedrooms have smoke alarms, but they're ancient things, and covered in paint. No batteries neither. I plan on throwing them.

[Mick Fisher]

Why not see if you can get some advice from your local fire brigade.

[Tinky]

Thanks gc for a timely reminder that I ought to check the batteries in my smoke alarm; a task, I suspect a few of us don't do often enough!

[iglu]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

They were selling them off at 1/2 price at B&Q, so I bought 4 - 1x basic ionisation, 2x ionisation with light and hush button, and 1x photoelectric. I'm just pondering where to put them. There's not a lot of detailed guidance available on the siting of alarms. I guess I ought to have one on each floor. The kitchen is a problem because of the low ceiling. I was wondering about putting one of the hush ones at the top of the stairs leading from the kitchen? I could then put the basic one in the living room. The photoelectric would be good outside the main bedroom - but I worry about the bathroom being too close. The final one would go in the attic, on the hallway ceiling.

I'm also wondering about the different sorts of fire - flaming v slow burning. Is a flaming fire more common in a kitchen, say?? And how does that affect the choice and placement of a smoke alarm.

The two attic bedrooms have smoke alarms, but they're ancient things, and covered in paint. No batteries neither. I plan on throwing them.

The ones with the lights should be at the stairs/corridors.

Do you use gas fires/ gas central heating? If yes, then you should go back to B&Q and get a CO detector too! they are a bit expensive but essential...

[Scarlett]

I have alarms for both types of fire next to each other mainly over the electrical gear (computers and the tv setup) and also just outside of the kitchen. The bedrooms have just the fast burning ones. We also have both types at the top of the stairs. Finally we have 2 electircal CO2 detectors, one in the kitchen and one near the boiler. Be carful about putting smoke alarms too close to the bathroom (as the steam can set them off) and obviously the kitchen (because just cooking something on the grill is usually enough to set them off.)

The ones with lights and the hush button should go near the kitchen and probably at the top of the stairs. One for your bedroom and then perhaps look to see where there is a large amount of electical goods (e.g. tv, dvd etc.) and put it up over that.

Once they're in, test them weekly. You would also do good to have a think about how you would get out of your house if there was a fire, where are the keys to the doors? how would you manage if the stairs were blocked? etc.

[Hom3r]

You can buy smoke alarms specifically for kitchen & bathrooms

[pop80_uk]

I urge everyone to buy check and double check you fire alarm! Last week we were happily sitting in our spare room on the PC when we heard a fire engine, we looked out the window and the house just across the way was ablaze! Turns out the 7 year old had been playing with a candle in the house and the fire start.
Nightmare situation.

[Hom3r]

pop80_uk vbmenu_register("postmenu_34314512", true);

Where the occupants OK?

[pop80_uk]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

pop80_uk vbmenu_register("postmenu_34314512", true);

Where the occupants OK?

Yup they escaped un-hurt and I think the whole area called the fire service at some point, 3 fire engines turned up, 2 ambluances and 11 (yes 11) police cars!!

[Matthew]

Have a look here. After reading that and you are still not sure ring your location fire station up or community fire safety office as they call them now and arrange a home fire safety check. If you are not sure who to call let me know where roughly you live and I will give you a number to ring.

[yesman]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

They were selling them off at 1/2 price at B&Q, so I bought 4 - 1x basic ionisation, 2x ionisation with light and hush button, and 1x photoelectric. I'm just pondering where to put them. There's not a lot of detailed guidance available on the siting of alarms. I guess I ought to have one on each floor. The kitchen is a problem because of the low ceiling. I was wondering about putting one of the hush ones at the top of the stairs leading from the kitchen? I could then put the basic one in the living room. The photoelectric would be good outside the main bedroom - but I worry about the bathroom being too close. The final one would go in the attic, on the hallway ceiling.

I'm also wondering about the different sorts of fire - flaming v slow burning. Is a flaming fire more common in a kitchen, say?? And how does that affect the choice and placement of a smoke alarm.

The two attic bedrooms have smoke alarms, but they're ancient things, and covered in paint. No batteries neither. I plan on throwing them.

Battery smoke alarms are better than nothing, but really ought to be the hard wired interlinked type, interlinked either by hard wiring, or by a radio frequency.

http://www.aico.co.uk/downloads/tech_guide.pdf

Siting is important also. Smoke detectors on a landing should not be further than 3 metres from any bedroom door, this is to ensure that audibility is achieved at the bedhead, if you have fire doors in the property that have a intumescent(sp) strip, it is probably best to site alarms within the bedrooms.

Always fit a heat detector in the kitchen, and never put a smoke alarm in the bathroom.

http://www.aico.co.uk/smoke_wiring.htm

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by iglu

The ones with the lights should be at the stairs/corridors

Yeah - it would fit with what I intend (cellar/kitchen stairs and upper hallway)

Originally Posted by iglu

Do you use gas fires/ gas central heating? If yes, then you should go back to B&Q and get a CO detector too! they are a bit expensive but essential...

Way ahead of you I've got a battery one - sits next to the phone in the living room. The boiler's in the kitchen, but the alarm came from my parents, who had problems with it going off all the time. They had it sited in an alcove at the side of the fire. So I figured best put it away from anything that might give off a bit of CO as part of its normal operation. Either way, when I open the kitchen door, the fumes from the flue blow in, so it would be bleeping away and driving me nuts if it were in the kitchen. So living room it is.

Originally Posted by Scarlett

I have alarms for both types of fire next to each other mainly over the electrical gear (computers and the tv setup) and also just outside of the kitchen. The bedrooms have just the fast burning ones. We also have both types at the top of the stairs. Finally we have 2 electircal CO2 detectors, one in the kitchen and one near the boiler. Be carful about putting smoke alarms too close to the bathroom (as the steam can set them off) and obviously the kitchen (because just cooking something on the grill is usually enough to set them off.)

Crikey! No chance of you not knowing the house is on fire. I wanted to avoid the house bristling with alarms. I figured the photoelectric would be good on the lower hallway because it's in the middle of the house, so would "catch" smoke from downstairs and the bedroom.

Originally Posted by Scarlett

You would also do good to have a think about how you would get out of your house if there was a fire, where are the keys to the doors? how would you manage if the stairs were blocked? etc.

At the moment, there is no escape. I'm thinking about investing in a fire extinguisher, so I can fight my way out. Otherwise I'd have to leap out a window and end up a foot shorter.

Originally Posted by yesman

Battery smoke alarms are better than nothing, but really ought to be the hard wired interlinked type, interlinked either by hard wiring, or by a radio frequency

The hard wired ones are a bit of a nightmare. I was in a flat years ago which had them. The electrician had used the lighting circuit to power them. When I used the grill, they would start beeping. Only solution was to flick the fuse for the lights. I could hush the one in the kitchen but not the one in the hallway. In the end, I pulled the connector out of the hallway one and took the battery out. Just made do with the kitchen one.

Originally Posted by yesman

Always fit a heat detector in the kitchen

Heat detector

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

The electrician had used the lighting circuit to power them.

The main power ones are usually run from the light circuit.

Go on, call some firemen around - you know you want to!

[greencreeper]

Originally Posted by Mr_love_monkey

The main power ones are usually run from the light circuit

Methinks that's obviously very daft, but hey.

Originally Posted by Mr_love_monkey

Go on, call some firemen around - you know you want to!

I'd end up with the old, hairy ones, with a beer belly


The links yesman posted advise that optical alarms are best in hallways, whereas the packaging for the optical alarm I have (Kidde) advises that they're best for living rooms It's not good to have conflicting advise when it comes to safety.

Heat alarms are mains powered, so that rules those out.

There's a problem with the kitchen alarm - where I planned on putting it, the door would smash it off the ceiling There's about 1" clearance between the top of the door and the ceiling. There's a sort of second ceiling where the light for the stairs is fitted, but there's not enough room for an alarm. I can't put it on the sloping ceiling - that's apparently very bad, according to yesman's links. So I'm a bit stumped. Probably going to have to be the wall.

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by greencreeper

Methinks that's obviously very daft, but hey.

why? surely that way there's no need to worry about batteries and so on - I'd have thought that the fact it kept going off with the grill was a sign that it was a rubbish smoke detector, rather than powering from the mains being a bad idea?

Originally Posted by greencreeper

I'd end up with the old, hairy ones, with a beer belly

Don't knock it until you've tried it

Originally Posted by greencreeper

The links yesman posted advise that optical alarms are best in hallways, whereas the packaging for the optical alarm I have (Kidde) advises that they're best for living rooms It's not good to have conflicting advise when it comes to safety.

Is yesman not a fireman? (maybe I'm thinking of someone else)