How many smoke alarms in a 2 bed flat

[benjiman]

Hi all,

Have a 2 bed flat, considering running mains smoke alarms and heat detectors. Concrete ceilings in the 2 bedrooms and living room. Kitchen and hallway has dropped ceilings so possible to run mains cabling here.

Question is how many are required?

The passage leads of to the various rooms in the flat.

Kitchen will need a heat detector, i can get a mains one here due to drop ceiling.

Also in the passage, dropped ceiling so can interlink a mains smoke alarm here.

Question is do the 2 bedrooms need their own smoke alarms as well?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Question is do the 2 bedrooms need their own smoke alarms as well?

It’s a risk assessment. A smoke alarm in a bedroom has two functions:

1. To raise an alarm should something catch fire in the room. If there is no likelihood of this, then no point having an alarm there. Unkess it contains Grandad still smoking Woodbines in bed - then have one.

2. To provide a repeat of an alarm in other parts of the dwelling. To do this your alarms need to be linked, either by wires or wirelessly. If your bedrooms are near each other then just have one alarm on the ceiling outside. Please install linked alarms.

 

[benjiman]

Thanks Taylor.

So nothing likely to catch fire in the rooms and bedrooms 2 meters apart through the passage.

So will go for heat detector in kitchen and a smoke alarm in passage to cover the rooms. Both interlinked.

 

[Taylortwocities]

That should be ok. Unless your flat is large and rambling.

 

[bernardgreen]

Wall wart power supplies left plugged into a socket can fail in a burst of flame. This could ignite other items in the otherwise un-used bedroom

 

[Tigercubrider]

if "The passage" runs past the bedrooms and has a dropped ceiling, can't you just drill through the wall and mount the alarm either on the ceiling or as high up the (bedroom) wall as possible?

 

[Taylortwocities]

You should not mount smoke alarms on a wall. They are designed to be flat on a ceiling. On a wall, or closer that 300mm to a corner is a possible smoke dead spot.

This guide will tell you about where and how many alarms you need.
https://www.aico.co.uk/technical_support/alarm-siting/