Smoke Alarms in Scotland - New Regulations means a large bill!

lillytheboxer_2

I know I'm a little late to the party but with just 2 weeks before the legislation comes into play, in Scotland, I've just purchased 3 smoke alarms and a heat alarm, all interlinked, for £108.00 with free delivery from - 'Linked up Alarms' who state that they comply with the new Scottish regulations. They are wireless and can be set up easily by most. There really isn't much you can do wrong. Screw onto the wall and link. You don't even have to faff with the battery! Note, I already have a Co2 alarm and this doesn't have to be linked. These can be picked up for £10-£15 on Amazon

Torry_Quine

lillytheboxer_2 said:

I know I'm a little late to the party but with just 2 weeks before the legislation comes into play, in Scotland, I've just purchased 3 smoke alarms and a heat alarm, all interlinked, for £108.00 with free delivery from - 'Linked up Alarms' who state that they comply with the new Scottish regulations. They are wireless and can be set up easily by most. There really isn't much you can do wrong. Screw onto the wall and link. You don't even have to faff with the battery! Note, I already have a Co2 alarm and this doesn't have to be linked. These can be picked up for £10-£15 on Amazon

That sounds good for those who can fit them themselves. There's no way I'm going to attempt it though. I'm getting mine with fitting for under £200 which is a good price.

Al_Ross

lillytheboxer_2 said:

I know I'm a little late to the party but with just 2 weeks before the legislation comes into play, in Scotland, I've just purchased 3 smoke alarms and a heat alarm, all interlinked, for £108.00 with free delivery from - 'Linked up Alarms' who state that they comply with the new Scottish regulations.

 I am thinking about getting these from Linked up Alarms,my thought are if they do get activated,say someone burns the toast,would that quickly drain the battery which can't be replaced ?

BUFF

Their CO alarms (which are not required to be linked) seem somewhat expensive.

If you burn the toast & the alarm goes off hopefully it would only be going for a minute or less before you cancel it (& remember that you are meant to test once a month) so I don't think that it would impact the battery that much. If you left it going for hours & hours that would be a different story ...

Alderbank

The toaster and a smoke alarm should not be in the same room. Indeed fitting a smoke alarm in a kitchen is a breach of the regulations here in Scotland, precisely because of the risk that people will get fed up of that alarm and disable it.
The regulations in Scotland say you must only have a heat alarm in a kitchen. Heat alarms are not sensitive to smoke.

PS I agree about the price of their CO alarms

molerat

Alderbank said:

The toaster and a smoke alarm should not be in the same room. Indeed fitting a smoke alarm in a kitchen is a breach of the regulations here in Scotland, precisely because of the risk that people will get fed up of that alarm and disable it.
The regulations in Scotland say you must only have a heat alarm in a kitchen. Heat alarms are not sensitive to smoke.

PS I agree about the price of their CO alarms

Who said anything about the toaster and the alarm being in the same room !

And anyone that thinks these "10 year battery" alarms are going to last anywhere close to that is in for a nasty shock.

BUFF

Good catch.
but being pedantic  a  toaster needn't necessarily be in a kitchen plus with open plan all the rage these days smoke could drift out of the kitchen into the next room/space.

Alderbank

Who said anything about the toaster and the alarm being in the same room !

a  toaster needn't necessarily be in a kitchen plus with open plan all the rage these days smoke could drift out of the kitchen into the next room/space

Whoever drafted the regulations presumably thought that if there is no smoke detector in the kitchen you would just close the door instead of disabling the alarm.
The new regs concede (this is hidden in the detail of the regs) that where living and kitchen areas are combined that the occupant can carry out a risk assessment to determine the most effective type of fire alarm. I don't think they realised how popular that arrangement is in homes today.

And anyone that thinks these "10 year battery" alarms are going to last anywhere close to that is in for a nasty shock.

Indeed! I'd give them 3 years but I'm an optimist.

This new law is odd I think in that the government is now at pains to say there will be no penalty for not complying. I am the last person to say don't fit smoke alarms but I would say based on experience of the last 30 years that ones with replaceable PP3 batteries are the most reliable.

BUFF

Alderbank said:

And anyone that thinks these "10 year battery" alarms are going to last anywhere close to that is in for a nasty shock.

Indeed! I'd give them 3 years but I'm an optimist.

This new law is odd I think in that the government is now at pains to say there will be no penalty for not complying. I am the last person to say don't fit smoke alarms but I would say based on experience of the last 30 years that ones with replaceable PP3 batteries are the most reliable.

I think that for most they will do more than 3 years but I do suspect less than 10 (indeed iirc some are "7 year" batteries rather than 10). Certainly, FireAngel's manufacturer warranty is 5 years which may give an idea of what they truly expect ...

It's the fact that batteries are removable that the fire services object to - they have gone to too many fires (many fatal) where batteries have been removed from otherwise working detectors that would have sounded an alarm otherwise.
& the actual sensor's effectiveness declines with time so it's advocated that detectors are replaced every ~10 years anyway rather than just having another battery fitted to a 10+ year old device.