Smoke alarms, do you have them?

oystercatcher

We have always had them since about the '80's but I do know some people who have them freestanding sat on the furniture rather than screwed into the ceiling so the previous residents may have had them and taken them with them. Not an ideal set up of course as smoke rises . I am sure there are still households without though sadly.

Squeaky9

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

Is it also a heat alarm? I think most smoke alarms also recognise sudden temperature rises as well and that sets them off.

Had a heat alarm in the kitchen when I was renting, but the kitchen was so small and had no window so every time we opened the oven door the alarm (positioned right above it) went off. 

Doozergirl

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

The kitchen needs a heat sensor to meet regs. 

Putting it above the oven probably wasn't the developer's best idea! 

RelievedSheff

Doozergirl said:

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

The kitchen needs a heat sensor to meet regs. 

Putting it above the oven probably wasn't the developer's best idea! 

We don't have a heat sensor in the kitchen of our two year old "new build"

molerat

Sotts said:

We have hard wired in our new build.  One goes off, causes every other one to go off.
Strangely one is directly above the oven and it goes off whenever we open the oven door.  Even when there's no smoke.   Is that normal 

You should have a heat alarm in the kitchen and it should be roughly in the centre of the room. As they trigger at around 135 deg C they should not be above the oven because the rush of heat from opening the oven door is enough to trigger it. You need to speak to your builder about getting it moved.

greatcrested

SameOldRoundabout said:

We have one on each floor, plus a CO2 alarm in the kitchen and the living room (log burner requirement). I really need another CO2 upstairs for the boiler I suppose.

A CO2 alarm will constantly, endlessly, warn you to stop driving, switch to renewable energy, become a vegetarian (if not vegan) and sail across the Atlantic as Greta did.

It will be of no use in protecting your life as an individual home-owner.

youth_leader

I've also got a metal fire ladder from Chubb.  I slept at the end of the corridor at my previous house and had a terror I wouldn't make it to the stairs if there was a fire.  Now I've got a bungalow it's going to my son, who's just informed me I should keep a hammer handy to break the double glazing! 

davidmcn

greatcrested said:

SameOldRoundabout said:

We have one on each floor, plus a CO2 alarm in the kitchen and the living room (log burner requirement). I really need another CO2 upstairs for the boiler I suppose.

It will be of no use in protecting your life as an individual home-owner.

Possibly counter-productive if it deters you from ever breathing out.

AdrianC

Two wired in the new end of the house, two battery in the old end.

No-brainer for the sake of a tenner for two and a couple of minutes to fit.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088HH5TGY

I use rechargeable 9v batteries, and there's always one spare charged.

maisie_cat

We were required to hard wire 1 as a requirement in our last house when we extended. We took the opportunity to have another 3 linked to it. in our current house we have a woodburner & rayburn, so we have 4 smoke detectors and 3 CO detectors as a precaution.