Mains Interlinked Smoke Alarms Query

[AlwaysOnTheGo]

Hi folks, first post so take it easy on me

I'm in the process of combining two houses into one. The building inspector has been out to give us some advice and he said we need to have an electrician fit 4 mains interlinked smoke alarms. In both halls and landings.

I'll be getting quotes this week but like to plan ahead.

For ease of wiring i'm thinking routing it would be :-

House 1 hall smoke alarm up inside airing cupboard into loft and fit landing smoke alarm > Through loft of house 1 into loft of house 2 > house 2 landing smoke alarm > down airing cupboard to house 2 hall smoke alarm and from here connect to House 2 Consumer unit.

I hope that makes sense.

Would we require any additional earthing requirements that we would need to pay for as one house would effectively have a feed into the next door house.

Thanks

Dave

 

[properleckie]

IMHO this would be a very dangerous thing to do since it would need both supplies switching off to isolate any alarm.
run as you suggest just don't connect to second consumer unit, if it's going to be one house then it doesn't matter which one supplies the minimal amount of power to run them,

 

[Taylortwocities]

Normally the interlinked smoke alarms would be situated in the common areas (halls and landings).
The power for the alarms, and the lighting in the common areas come from the landlord's supply. Not from one of the flats.

Is that the case here? I don't know how your building is laid out.

 

[AlwaysOnTheGo]

Sorry, I should have added more details.

The two houses are actually two 3 bedroom semi's. We like our location but have always wanted a larger detached as the kids are getting older and the bathroom is getting busy !

My post might not be clear but the alarms are only supplied from one consumer unit, then all four in series. They are in no way connected to the electrical supply of the other house.

Hope that clarifies.

Thanks

Dave

 

[londonboy]

cant you get onto your supplier and get them to remove one of the meters in one half of the house, then take everything (inc smoke alarms) off the existing meter.

 

[AlwaysOnTheGo]

To be honest we want to see how it goes with the house 'as one'. It's possibe we may sell them at a later date as two houses.

Long term we may investigate the one supply. Short term plan is just to fit the 4 smoke alarms and feed from one house CU.

Thanks

 

[londonboy]

pick either house then, doesnt make any difference, and do as you say with linking 4 in series.

 

[nozspark]

Or put 2 hard wired linked in each "house" with RF bases to link them together!!

Then if you do split them back up it will be much easier to split the alarms in each side,,, and still have a system in each property!!!

 

[Taylortwocities]

I agree with Noxspark.

The problem that you will have is that house 2 will have a spurious feed from house 1 (for the alarms).
This means that, if you turn off the main switch in the consumer unit for house 2 you would expect that everything is off. But there will still be live circuits (the smoke alarms).

 

[plugwash]

If you are going to keep two supplies then IMO you should attatch clear warnings to both consumer units so that anyone working on the installation is aware of this fact.

I would also suggest bonding together the two main earth terminals so that the building becomes one equipotential zone.