John Bisset Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Hi all. Having greatly enjoyed some of the recent chit chat queries & comments, I find I now have one of my own. An advertising note through my door has alerted me to a forthcoming change in the law, relating to smoke & heat alarms. (In Scotland - the rest of the UK may well be doing the same but I don't know what the timings are.) It seems that as well as smoke alarms, we are now being required to fit heat alarms - in kitchens at least - and carbon monoxide alarms wherever there is a fuel burners within a room. Fine within limits, though there seems to be some doubt as to whether alarms have to interconnected or whether that is a 'should' not a 'shall' item. I am unhappy with interconnection, having had the devil of a job tracing and eliminating a faulty linkage in an over complex set up, which kept producing spurious alarms. Eventually I simplified the arrangement. I am also unclear to what extent these rules are relevant to a private home as opposed to a property for rental. Mine is a private house, not for rent. All the references I can find discuss 'tolerable standards'; which are for properties for rent. Does anyone have a good handle on this? Previous experience make me reluctant to interlink, and my house design would make wired interconnects of new alarms a pain to retrofit. I dislike over complexity because it increases failure rates - and people ignore warnings if too many false alarms occur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flight1 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 well as I read it by Jan 21 you should have upgraded to the new regulations. All heat and smoke alarms will have to be interlinked (either wirelesly or wired). Inter linking has been require for some time now. for a easy setup just get wireless interlinked alarms with 10 year lithium bats and then you can forget about them untilll they need replacment in 10 years. as for carbon monoxide they don't need to be interlinked As for tolerable standard means a guidence thats not set in stone so you can make ajustments for say a open plan house etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bisset Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Thanks 'flight1'. Sounds as if you had heard of this some time ago - it came as a surprise to me. If carbon monoxide alarms do not need interlinking, super - that simplifies things a bit. Not sure that my boiler room needs a carbon monoxide alarm; it is not 'habitable' and I regularly have the flues swept. That seems a 'tolerable standard' by my measure, or at least a point on which to argue! . The 10 year battery life sealed units - I debate how eco-friendly that is. Possibly the sensors ate apt to die by then anyway, which would 'excuse' the throwaway. Do the sensors degrade with time- seems probable. (Is it only me or does this seem to be a bit ' horse & stable door' reaction to Grenfell etc?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Walsh Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Full details available here: Tolerable standard guidance Looking at the wider legislation, I could understand it applying if I wanted to rent a property out but if I want to live in a damp, decrepit fire trap myself, I thinks that's my business and not the council's. Also, who comes around to check that the house you live in complies with all the legislative requirements? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bisset Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Thank you Shaun. I had found that one - it repays re-reading. I note it is titled 'Guidance' only and that 'should' is frequently used within it. That implies a level of choice is acceptable; when I wrote something I required to be done I used 'shall' and 'must', so I think there is some careful writing here. I agree with you - I don't see how compliance will be checked, nor is it strictly anyone else's business what risks I choose to take (while not affecting others) although 'tis possible the insurance companies may start to ask about this sort of thing. Cheers, John B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john davidson 1 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Being pedantic SHOULD is the past tense of SHALL but I don't think that is how most people use it , but .it is used in legislation Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly boy3 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Had a new boiler installed Feb 2020 in an unused back bedroom.. Plumber insisted on a Co2 alarm to be mounted at a certain distance from boiler. Also down stairs we had a gas fire. Same request from installer. Portable Co2 alarms remarkably cheap in B&Q. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bisset Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Thank you 'john davidson 1'- that is a darn good point, and one I had forgotten. My dictionary says the same. It is perhaps because of the common modern English usage, that 'shall' was used instead in our formal documents- to avoid that ambiguity! 'fly boy3' - they are quite cheap yes, though quite probably CO rather than CO2. Both can kill but the former is the one that easily results from part blocked flues and poorly burning stoves. More deadly because it ties up the haemoglobin. In many light aeroplanes we also have CO detectors, the simplest being a spot detector - it turns dark when CO hits it. Edited By John Bisset on 12/10/2020 22:26:19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly boy3 Posted October 12, 2020 Share Posted October 12, 2020 Sorry John, carbon monoxide I meant. My apologies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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