Smoke Alarms - Vaulted Ceiling

[Barney12]

Hi All

 

I have an interesting design challenge with smoke alarm locations. My plan is to install as follows:

 

Hallway - (Optical)

Landing - (Ionising)

Kitchen - (Heat)

 

Now the room that poses the problem is the landing as it's much bigger and higher than normal (the landing is actually a large upper drawing room). Firstly I'm going to have to fit two alarms (one at each end) as one centrally just about fails the 3m from bedroom requirement. 

Secondly it's a vaulted ceiling. I do have a flat area at the top but it's close to 4m high. I can fit them on the slope but the regs state that they have to be 600mm from the apex so I'm not gaining much. So testing these two alarms is going to be a challenge. They'll be interlinked so of course I can hit the test on the ones in the hall/kitchen will will confirm the audible function of these high up alarms. But to test them individually the best I can come up with is a bean pole!! 

You can get remote switches for testing/silencing but they seem to all rely on radio linked alarms which add considerably to the cost. Again though all they do is test all alarms at once.

 

So, is the action of hitting the test button on one alarm and the others giving an audible result still a genuine test? Or does pressing the test button on each provide a more thorough test. I've read the manuals for most of the major brands and all say to test each alarm individually. 

 

Am am I missing any other solution? 

 

TTFN

[ProDave]

Buy Aico alarms, and the remote test / silence button station.

 

An alternative that I will be doing on a room with a vaulted ceiling, is to fit the smoke alarm on the vertical gable wall rather than a ceiling. Aico approve this and building control passed this in a house I wired a few years ago where we did this.

[Barney12]

8 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Buy Aico alarms, and the remote test / silence button station.

 

An alternative that I will be doing on a room with a vaulted ceiling, is to fit the smoke alarm on the vertical gable wall rather than a ceiling. Aico approve this and building control passed this in a house I wired a few years ago where we did this.

 

I was intending to use Aico. But from what I can gleen from the data sheets the test/silence buttons only work with the optional wireless modules which seems daft to specify when I'm hard wiring in a new build scenario?

 

Ideally I don't want them on the walls as that's reserved for artwork  

Edited September 10, 2017 by Barney12

[Onoff]

For the sake of a few of your details you can download loads of Aico bumpf:

 

https://www.aico.co.uk/publications/

[dpmiller]

Any requirement for CO detection?

 

I'll certainly be going nowhere else than Aico for ours as with the remote button and a relay box, you've got all the same functionality as a full panel system.

[Onoff]

8 hours ago, Barney12 said:

 

I was intending to use Aico. But from what I can gleen from the data sheets the test/silence buttons only work with the optional wireless modules which seems daft to specify when I'm hard wiring in a new build scenario?

 

Erm...you can get test buttons for their hard wired ranges. 

 

For example:

 

https://www.aico.co.uk/product/ei1529rc-hard-wired-alarm-control-switch/

[MikeSharp01]

9 hours ago, Barney12 said:

regs state that they have to be 600mm from the apex

I think the regs say they need to be placed no more than 600mm from the peak (150mm for heat sensors) so if you have a flat bit then it, if my reading is correct, should be on the flat bit at the peak.

[dogman]

100% you can get test button for hard wired range. We have one in our cottage

[Nickfromwales]

5 minutes ago, dogman said:

100% you can get test button for hard wired range. We have one in our cottage

 

Thats the locate button too. Very handy in a large or 3 storey house. If the smoke alarms go off you press locate and it silences all the alarms except the one that's been triggered, so you can head there immediately to investigate. 

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, dpmiller said:

Any requirement for CO detection?

 

Any room with a combustion appliance, e.g. WBS or boiler and any room the flue passes through must have a CO detector.

[ProDave]

52 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

I think the regs say they need to be placed no more than 600mm from the peak (150mm for heat sensors) so if you have a flat bit then it, if my reading is correct, should be on the flat bit at the peak.

It's more complicated than that. Also more than 300mm from a corner.  In my case and the one I did previously, the flat bit at the top of the vaulted ceiling was not wide enough to put it 300mm from a corner.  We could have put it on one side, but that would have looked silly, hence why we decided on the upright gable wall.

[MikeSharp01]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

It's more complicated than that. Also more than 300mm from a corner.

Does that mean the flat bit has to be 600mm wide? As I read it provided the flat bit, a 200mm wide and deep beam in my case,  was no more than 300mm from the peak then you were OK. 

[ProDave]

3 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Does that mean the flat bit has to be 600mm wide? As I read it provided the flat bit, a 200mm wide and deep beam in my case,  was no more than 300mm from the peak then you were OK. 

Ar the time, I discussed it with the BC officer. Yes his opinion was the flat bit would have to be 600mm wide, otherwise the detector would be less than 300mm from a "corner" That's when he agreed it could go on the gable wall, as long as the manufacturer also said that was okay, which Aico did.

 

I suspect it is very much open to interpretation between different BC inspectors.