green-foam

There is no regulation as to which circuit it is connected to, however if it is connected to its own MCB there is the possibility that some one will turn it off. They will not do that if it is connected to the lighting circuit.

As Tom said, sprinklers are to protect against fire when the building is un-ocupied. By the time sprinklers activate the fire has to be "reasonably big*" where as if a member of staff sees the fire first, they can use an extinguisher which in turn will stop a small fire becoming a big fire, saving both time and money. I would suggest that staff should also be given basic training on how to use portable fire extinguishers. * Depending on location of sprinklers.

The air temperature at the sprinkler will have to be above 56 degrees centigrade. If your steamer and hot plate can do this then yes it will set it off. Being as its steam, I would suggest when in use you keep a couple of windows open to prevent mould growth.

As Harry says, and you (Yer ma) have said, it is not possible for a smoke alarm to make any noise for any reasonable length of time with out some sort of power supply. I have to agree with Harry, you have another detector somewhere nearby (may not be a CO detector) that has a low battery. My personal favourite is one put in a drawer and never fitted, but still with battery installed. I have also heard of them being "put down" on the top of a cupboard, and forgotten until..............

You may also like to see video clips of complete discharge of some portable fire extinguishers, Click here However, do bear in mind the video's show just the duration of the discharge, when fighting a fire, often it can be extinguished in 10 - 20 seconds of actual discharge. (Most "modern" fire extinguishers have a lever which stops discharge when released.)

Only new builds must have a mains operated smoke alarm, a battery operated smoke alarm is acceptable. I should also point out that being a maisonette you do not have a communal stair way, so a fire alarm Is NOT required. You could ask your landlord to fit a mains operated smoke alarm, but even if he does, it would be up to YOU to test it on a regular basis. You would not want your landlord coming round once a week just to press the smoke alarm test button would you? If you do wish to ask your landlord, I should point out that you should ask for a "mains smoke alarm" NOT a "mains fire alarm" as the they are very different. Safelincs can supply mains smoke alarms from only £17.75 Click here

Alex, what country are you based in?

I would guess that it is an incompatibility between the two detectors. From what you have said you have two different brands of device. I would suggest you change either one or both so that they are the same make / model As they are due to expire in 2016 you could change them both now. Safelincs do supply mains (with battery back up) smoke alarms for around £20 Click here

Sorry, and your question is .............

If they are "nearer to the ground" they would be more likely to be damaged. Also would it not "be the norm" that everyone gets out before the smoke reduces visibility, and the natural reaction of Joe public would be to run, so again, a sign low down would be of no use.

I have to agree with Harry. The "Bit on the ceiling" is just a connection / mounting plate, it has no other function. Below is a video from Safelincs, showing how to remove the detector from the base. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AQvjqhnHTE

I have just looked on said auction site, most sofas that came up are less than 1 year old, I did search again for very old sofas, one was going for 99p another for £10, and no bids on either, my point being (sorry to say this) I don't think they will sell even if you had a label.

I would suggest you ask the local council what they specify. Most EM lights are fed from the nearest normal lighting circuit in twin and earth. Its pointless wiring non-maintained, standalone EM lights in fire resistant cable as this is self defeating, in that if there is a fire the cable will not melt, so the supply to the light is still maintained, so the light will not illuminate. Since the idea of a test switch is to remove the supply from the EM light it would be advisable to have a test switch near each EM light, other wise you could have a large lighting load going through one EM test switch You could have all the EM lights on the same circuit all connected via twin and earth back to the consumers unit and have one test switch, but this means the CU would have to loose power for all the lights to illuminate. (It would also cost more due to the added expense of more cable) where as if each EM light is connected to the "local light" if this fails then the EM light will illuminate.

Just curious Tom. How can an item of furniture made in the 70's have a label for a regulation that came into being in 1988? ______________________________ Peter The charity shops are just "covering all bases" by refusing to take the furniture. It could be a piece of furniture had a label which has since been damaged, but as it can not be read, it will be deemed to have no valid label. Yes it is a shame that they will not take the furniture, but as a private individual you can dispose of it privately. So you could advertise it in your local paper as a "free to collector" item.

I believe that as they are in your flat (not the communal area) it is up to you to test them. Ideally you should test them once a week. You test them by pressing the test button. Once every 6 months you should clean them (Run a vacuum cleaner around each one) Once a year change the battery unless it has a sealed in X year life battery. Most "mains supplied" smoke alarms have a back up battery.

Get a CO detector and install it near the boiler. I would suggest you do not get an interlinked CO detector as if CO is detected any other interlinked smoke alarms will NOT sound, how ever if smoke is detected by a smoke alarm the interlinked CO alarm will sound. This is so that you can distinguish between smoke and CO You can get one from Safelincs Click here I would suggest you also consider an Emergency light, as there is a boiler in the loft and you are looking at it and the lights fail, how will you see to get out to investigate why the lights went out? You can get one for less than £20 from Here

If when you swap them over the fault stays where it is, then I would have to ask have you checked to see if the incoming mains cable connections are tight? SWITCH OFF the electricity FIRST

CWEENG, I believe you have miss-understood / miss-read the question. Sorry but Tom Eddl said Which to me means, he is the fire station manager at a working airport, and currently has the option to use portable BCF fire extinguishers, of which he has at least one 9KG BCF, he seems to be seeking a replacement for this 9KG BCF portable extinguisher (or maybe he has more than one) he does not seem to be looking for a replacement for a fixed installation system. But perhaps you can confirm or deny the following. As a rough estimate, you need 1.5 times as much "halon replacement" as you do halon 1211, which would mean that for a 9kg BCF you would need a 13.5 KG extinguisher, But they do not make a portable halon replacement extinguisher in that size.

No offence to Tom, but I suggest to anyone reading this ignore what that website says, It has miss-information on several articles, how a smoke detector works being one of them. Optical smoke detectors do NOT work by smoke breaking a beam. The opposite is infact true. Inside an optical smoke detector is an infra red LED and an Infra red receiver. The Infra red LED does emit Infra red light, but it is NOT pointing at the receiver, the two are at right angles to each other. (See the video clip below) When smoke enters the detection chamber it scatters the light, this is then detected by the infra red receiver, the detector then goes into alarm. You can clearly see this layout in a commercial smoke detector, it is bigger, so easier to see, but it works the same way (Large grey object on the right, and large black "lump" on the left.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI2Y9AhDv6k There is a smoke detection method that relies on smoke obscuring an infra red beam, but it is to cover large roof areas, and the units are too big to fit inside a smoke detector.

If they are beeping with no batteries in them and no mains I would suggest you look in the kitchen drawer or on top of a cupboard because there is another one you do not know about.

Emergency lights are designed to constantly trickle charge the standby batteries so the "charging light" will always be on. If as you ask could the light not turn off when the batteries are charged, I would have to say (Not wishing to be pedantic about it) Suppose when the batteries are 100% charged the "charging indication light" switches off, at what point would they start charging again? 75% or 50% or 25% No matter what the % of under 100% is, the light can not last the minimum 3 hours duration unless the battery is fully charged. Also if the charging light was not on, how would you know if the unit was charged or being charged?

Are the existing doors fire doors?

I would add have you considered the fact the smoke alarms were doing their job? A smoke alarm will make its alarm noise for as long as it detects smoke or similar sized particles, when the smoke or similar has cleared the detector will stop, just as yours did. As you have interlinked detectors (which is good) when one sounds they all sound. I suggest that one of them detected a small amount of smoke or similar. If they do this again, or on a regular basis then you would need to make logs of what time who was where etc, but as it was just a one off I would not worry about it, since if it was smoke or similar, you did not notice it, but then, were you looking for it?

I would ask what do the instructions say to do? If it helps paper has to reach 451 degrees farenheight before it will ignite.

I would like to mention that to be of much use they would need to be interlinked so that if one activates they all activate, it is possible to buy radio interlinked smoke alarms with a 10 year battery life safelincs can supply such a unit But I would also like to point out that smoke alarms are for automatic detection, but if a person sees a fire they can not activate the smoke alarm manually, but if there was a "basic" fire alarm installed with manual call points then activating one would cause an instant alarm.