There has been a notable increase in home safety awareness due to legislation such as the Gas Safety (Installations and Use) Regulations 2015, and 2016’s Gas Safety Week, but there is still a need to extend the knowledge of both commercial and domestic property owners and promote the use of more comprehensive safety systems.
Smoke alarms are an accepted part of property safety, but the importance of carbon monoxide (CO) and heat alarms and the benefits of linking them together, are aspects of the subject that are often overlooked. Undoubtedly, CO and heat alarms can raise the national standard of safety, but an important issue is understanding where they should be sited and why.
Essentially, smoke, CO or heat alarms should be sited where they can be most effective, ie. where they are not obstructed and can detect problems as quickly as possible.
Carbon Monoxide
It is widely believed within the industry that the 2015 regulations didn’t actually go far enough in tightening the law on CO alarm installations. It was stated that alarms must be present in rooms featuring solid fuel-burning appliances, and would only apply to landlords and housebuilders in England and Wales. We believe that for optimum protection, a CO alarm should be fitted in any room containing a fossil fuel-burning appliance, plus any bedroom above these areas.
Detailed recommendations on where to site these alarms can be found in EN 50292, but essentially an alarm should be fitted high up in a room, around 30cm from the ceiling and one metre away from boilers, fires or heaters.
Smoke
Legally, landlords are required to fit one smoke alarm per floor in a property, but best practice dictates that you need to go further than this. There should be an alarm in all habitable rooms, ideally within 1.5 metres of the entrance. Landlords should also take into account the different abilities of the people likely to be using the property, with different alarm sounders or visual notifications available for the eyesight or hearing impaired.
The siting of a smoke alarm should be as central in a room as possible, so it has the best chance to detect smoke wherever its source is. Ideally, this should also be a minimum of 30cm from a wall light fitting.
Heat
59 per cent of household fires are generated from cooking accidents. There are generally two types of fire, a fast-flaming fire and a slow-starting smouldering fire. Both can be started in a kitchen, but the fast-flaming fire is the most common, and because these produce lots of heat but not much smoke, a heat alarm is more beneficial in a kitchen. Again, these should be located centrally, avoiding any obstacles around the ceiling.
While the increase in awareness on safety alarms is obviously a boost, a general compliance does not always mean complete safety, so at Robinsons we are happy to visit your premises and advise on what systems you need and where alarms should be sited relative to the risk. Our engineers are trained on the latest and best products available and how these applications operate, please click here to contact us.