Help with smoke/heat alarms - hardwired/battery or a combination of both

Dorian1958

Hi, in Scotland legislation effective tomorrow requires that every home has interlinked smoke alarms and these must be interlinked with a heat alarm in the kitchen.

Currently I have 2 wired in alarms in the bottom hallway and one in the top hallway.  They are not interlinked.  I need to replace them with interlinked alarms and also add an alarm in the living room and a heat alarm in the kitchen.

I would prefer not to have the expense and mess of hardwiring alarms into the living room and the kitchen.

So my question is:  Can I replace my existing hardwired alarms with interconnected hardwired alarms, and will they interconnect with the additional battery alarms in the living room and kitchen?  Or do all the interconnected alarms have to be of the same type, i.e. hardwired OR battery?

Thank you, Dorian

Doozergirl

We have Nest alarms.  They're not cheap but I think they're a valuable investment.  It's worth looking at all of the features they offer.  

They do hard wired and battery operated units so you could mix and match.  They will all link through your wifi system.  

Dorian1958

Thank you Doozergirl, I had considered that, but the Scottish Government website guidance on the matter says:

"Please note that the Nest Protect System will not meet the standard. This is because they do not meet the requirements for a heat alarm under the relevant British Standard. British Standard (BS 5839-6:2019) states that only heat alarms should be installed in kitchens."

Dorian1958

I've just tested my existing hardwired alarms.  When I do a test, the others go off as well, which presumably means they are all interlinked.  This does not solve my problem, just correcting my original post.

Doozergirl

Dorian1958 said:

Thank you Doozergirl, I had considered that, but the Scottish Government website guidance on the matter says:

"Please note that the Nest Protect System will not meet the standard. This is because they do not meet the requirements for a heat alarm under the relevant British Standard. British Standard (BS 5839-6:2019) states that only heat alarms should be installed in kitchens."

Well that's short sighted and stupid, frankly.  They're essentially saying that they don't like that the nest does more than detect heat? 

The whole point of the nest system is that it is user friendly and gives several verbal warnings that you can turn off from your phone before it goes mental.   There's no waving tea towels under the things or stabbing it with a broom and then ripping it off the ceiling in frustration. 

Dorian1958

Yes the legislation requires conformance to the relevant BS, and that says only Heat Alarms should be used in kitchens, presumably because of the smoke that can come off cooking.  Obviously, I just need to comply with the relevant legislation.

BUFF

The Nest battery-powered alarms also fail to meet the new Scottish regulations in that the batteries are removable.
Many (all?) of the modern interlinked systems have a method of cancelling via a remote or phone app (or both).

As for the OP's question you can have a mix of hard-wired & battery alarms as long as they will all trigger at once from any of them. e.g. FireAngel's Pro Connected range can do this but I am sure that others can too.

Doozergirl

Of course, but technology has moved on and it seems like it's the new standards are left behind already.  

My husband is one of those people where you know dinner is ready by the sound of the smoke alarm.  In our old house, he would set the hall one off with the cooking and all hell would break loose with the dogs going nuts as well as the smoke alarm and the team effort of everyone streaming out of various rooms to control the cooking, alarms and dogs.  

In this house we get an audible  'there's smoke in the kitchen, the alarm may sound, the alarm is loud' and a notification to everyone's phones so you can open the app and silence it before the whole house starts screaming.


  

BUFF

So, wouldn't you prefer a system that does away with all these false alarms in the first place? Many people would & otherwise would disable/remove the alarm which is why the regs (advised by the fire brigades) specify heat alarms for kitchens rather than smoke alarms. Also, many people can't/won't pay £95 per Nest alarm when they typically need at least 3 & in many cases 4, 5 or more.

Btw these regs have been in force for rental properties for some time - it's only now being extended in Scotland to all habitations. I suspect that England will follow (although hopefully advised by the Scottish experience).

Doozergirl

BUFF said:

So, wouldn't you prefer a system that does away with all these false alarms in the first place? Many people would & otherwise would disable/remove the alarm which is why the regs (advised by the fire brigades) specify heat alarms for kitchens rather than smoke alarms. Also, many people can't/won't pay £95 per Nest alarm when they typically need at least 3 & in many cases 4, 5 or more.

Btw these regs have been in force for rental properties for some time - it's only now being extended in Scotland to all habitations. I suspect that England will follow (although hopefully advised by the Scottish experience).

No, because I've just explained that in our last house it was the hallway alarm that went off repeatedly because of what was happening in the kitchen. 

I'm far happier to have an intelligent warning of a false alarm in the appropriate room that is quickly remedied with a prolonged press of a finger than a completely unintelligent one that causes chaos and easily still ends with hallway alarms being removed.

What I'm living with is a much improved version of what was an entirely blunt instrument.  I am
hugely impressed by the Nest system.  

The kitchen is the largest and most vulnerable room in my house and smoke is the first signal.  That is exactly what I want to know about quickly when we're not in that room.  

BUFF

Many/all modern interlinked alarm systems will tell you which alarm has triggered the system & allow you to cancel via a button press on remote or phone - that is not unique to Nest.
Nest battery-powered alarms still fail the Scottish regs. due to removable batteries (experience has proven that many people experiencing fires had disabled their smoke alarms by removing batteries or they had run down). From what I can see on social media/forums etc. here most Scots upgrading are going for at least some battery powered.

These regs are largely driven by (& certainly informed by) the fire service. Whilst you may prefer Nest they clearly don't believe that for the majority of users (& themselves) it offers the best balance.