A flat. The block has solid floors. A suspended ceiling is to be installed with downlighters. Do the downlighters need to be the type with the fireproof casing, or just the open type?
thx
thx
Downlighters - fire safe
- Thread starter JohnHarrison
- Start date
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I would say not, but if the BCO says otherwise is it worth the aggro of trying to argue?
Thanks. I would rather have it can or it can't.
The ceilings between the apartments will be a fire barrier. Assuming you are not changing the fire barrier in any way then there's no need for fire-rated downlights.
Although
PS There is only a marginal price difference between fire rated and non-fire-rated downlights, so I would go for the fire-rated ones.
Although
PS There is only a marginal price difference between fire rated and non-fire-rated downlights, so I would go for the fire-rated ones.
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That's a good point.
I'll add to my post above then
………..Assuming you are not changing the fire barrier in any way, and that the clearances stated by the downlight manufacturer can be achieved…..
They may be something like this, but check the information, they are all different..
I'll add to my post above then
………..Assuming you are not changing the fire barrier in any way, and that the clearances stated by the downlight manufacturer can be achieved…..
They may be something like this, but check the information, they are all different..
Thanks to all and especially the pictures. The ceiling/floor above is solid and fireproof. There is a flat above. The lights will be LED, so little heat from them, so reduced danger there. I assume a minimum clearance is all that is required and no fireproof cased downlighter fittings are needed. There will probably be between 25 and 30 lights in all. Of those I have seen, the fire rated light units are around £9, while the non-fireproof units are only £3. so that is £60 to £180. A big difference. Having the fireproof units would be belt and braces for sure but using low temperature LED bulbs
With a wooden suspended floor the fireproof units would be definitely needed.
Thanks to all. So, I do not need the fireproof units.
The ceiling/floor above is solid and fireproof. There is a flat above. The lights will be LED, so little heat from them, so reduced danger there. I assume a minimum clearance is all that is required and no fireproof cased downlighter fittings are needed. There will probably be between 25 and 30 lights in all. Of those I have seen, the fire rated light units are around £9, while the non-fireproof units are only £3. so that is £60 to £180. A big difference. Having the fireproof units would be belt and braces for sure but using low temperature LED bulbsWith a wooden suspended floor the fireproof units would be definitely needed.
Thanks to all. So, I do not need the fireproof units.
Must be an enormous flat - I've only got 13 ceiling lights in a 3-bedrom house.
You're missing the point of what "fireproof" lights do. It seems you don't need them here, but that's got nothing to do with the type of bulbs in them, or how hot they run. If you were daft enough to grasp the canister of a fire-rated downlight with a halogen bulb in it, while it was on you'd soon realise that
. Fire-rated lights are not about stopping the lights themselves from burning, or causing a fire - they are designed to stop a fire spreading from the space below to the space above through all the holes cut in the ceiling, and those holes are there whether the lights are incandescent, CFL or LED.
That's simply not enough to evenly light a house of that size.
I bet you've still got an old fashioned lighting scheme in your house where you try and light the whole room with one bright light source in the middle of the room
They aren't the only sources of light, but fundamentally what you say is utter nonsense.
I've got the sound, elegant, fit for purpose scheme of using lights designed to do the job I want them to do, rather than the idiotic scheme of trying to force inappropriate lights into an application they are designed to not do and having to use ridiculously large numbers of them to try and overcome their basic unsuitability.
I agree that it is becoming an old fashioned scheme because of the increasing numbers of idiots installing inappropriate ones.
Nope it's becoming old fashioned because modern man has discovered that having multiple sources of illumination is a much better way of evenly lighting a room.
It's been done like that for many many years on commercial and industrial installations. The domestic market is now starting to catch up.
It's been done like that for many many years on commercial and industrial installations. The domestic market is now starting to catch up.
Working on that theory we should have lights that only work in the day time. That doesn't seem like a very good idea.
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