smoke & heat detectors interlinked with co detector neccesarry?

I am not aware of any law or regulation that requires the interlinking of fire detectors and CO detectors.

A university may however have their own additional requirements.

Students can be a considerable fire risk.

Either a look thru the standards or a question to the manufacturer for their opinion.

I`d always interlink all detectors if interlinking any

If you interlink the smoke, heat and CO alarms you also need to fit a controller so you can identify which alarm is setting the system off.


However if the CO alarm is a stand-alone then it is obvious if it is the alarm that is sounding.


Interconnecting them can cause more issues that it resolves. In my home I have Aico stand-alone battery CO alarms that can transfer information stored within them to a mobile device using the Aico app. So when they are tested the person testing them can find out the highest level of CO that has been detected, even if it was not enough to set the alarm off and other relevant information which can then be emailed as a report.


I am far happier having those than having CO alarms interconnected with heat and smoke alarms.


Andy Betteridge.

Having said that I cannot comment on Scottish requirements as they are different to those South of the border.

I have used a Kidde stand alone battery CO alarm with a read out of CO levels, after using a small portable camping heater in a room. The camping heater is not to be used indoors according to the instructions. The CO alarm complies to EN 50291-1 2010 and EN 50291-2 2010 is CE marked and displays a BS Kitemark. A truly essential piece of kit. It has a peak level button and a test reset button as well. When the heater is in use the CO alarm has always shown zero CO in the room air.


Z.


Z.

These are very interesting. Smoke and CO2 combined, App controlled, talk to you, text you , light the way etc ...   NEST

Wednesday evening I went to a birthday party in a Tipi (although I always thought they are a teepee) in a canal-side pub garden, which has a gas fired fire pit in the centre of it running off a patio gas bottle.


I did think the next time I have a coffee with a gas fitter that I will ask which assessment covers the installation of gas fired fire pits in teepees.


Andy Betteridge

If you interlink the smoke, heat and CO alarms you also need to fit a controller so you can identify which alarm is setting the system off.

On the system I have at home - all interlinked - if the CO detector triggers then all sound, but a different sound than if the smokes trigger. So it should be possible to identify which (type) of detector has set things off without any controller.


  - Andy.

This subject came up in connexion with a new build last month. Householder didn't really want a smoke alarm in the sitting room 'cos puffing back from the fire might cause nuisance tripping. His memsahib and I won the day, albeit at the expense of extra work.


CO alarms hadn't really been considered. AFAIK, they are required. My view is that in my draughty Edwardian home, CO is unlikely to build up, but that is far from the case in modern hermetically sealed (albeit with opening windows) homes. He still doesn't want them.


If a CO alarm goes off, you evacuate the room +/- opening the windows. It seems to me that the threat is limited to the room, so I don't quite see the need to interlink them. That said, if I did have CO alarms in my house, I'd interlink all of them. Better to be safe than sorry. A nuisance trip is merely a nuisance; a failure to warn may be fatal! ?

That’s not going to happen in a house full of students who don’t know their a**e from their elbow.


One of my lady customers said her eighteen year old son had told her that he thought the house landline phone was not working, she asked him if there was a dialling tone and he asked what’s that? These masterminds would not understand your differing alarm signals.


I phoned Aico several years ago and asked if they had a copy of their alarm instructions in Portuguese, when asked why I explained I wanted them for a HMO which was occupied by eleven Portuguese people (and a Portuguese dog) none of whom understood the difference between smoke and heat alarms or how the system works. After a few hours I got a call to say they could not provide instructions in Portuguese and I ended up trying to write very simple and precise instructions in English then laminating several copies to put up on notice boards within the HMO.


If what the tenants think is a fire alarm system is sounding when there is obviously not a fire they are likely to try and disable the alarm system, not realising that there is actually a major risk due to CO poisoning that is setting off the CO alarm.


 Andy Betteridge