Smoke or Heat Alarms?

i thought it was smokes in circulation areas and heats in living/kitchen areas.  i think the original thinking was to do with people smoking in their own homes setting them off otherwise.  i doubt you can smoke in a holiday let though.   probably doesn't fully answer your question . sorry 


Gary

I was always taught smoke detectors are protection to life and heat detectors are protection for property. So heat detectors should only be used in kitchens and garages in a domestic setting. You could use a multi sensor maybe?

Well my personal experience with a friend's enclosed wood-burning stove was that, when first lit and if the wind was blowing the wrong way (or something), her lounge would initially fill with smoke until enough heat had built up to force a convection flow back up the chimney.

Yes my dads does exactly the same. He took to warming the chimney with his blow torch before lighting the fire. To improve the draw.

My log burner is in an open plan kitchen/diner - so has Heat + CO detectors. Smoke spill is normally rare - but can happen - especially due to user error (e.g. opening both the man door and ashpan door at the same time.

   - Andy.

you want some sensible separation to any smoke detector, there will be some smoke released while the door is open and it is being lit or refueled, though non in normal operation. If the room is small,  then heat detection or some other smoke-resistant  technology is going to be best.  Optical sensors are less easily fooled by a fine whisp of smoke than the ion beam type.

More importantly is CO detection and ventilation - the ventilation is down to the installer of the stove and the flue but check the CO detection is not being left to you ?

The draw on a flue is best  it if is both tall, and well insulated.

M.

That should always be the case Mike, a dual wall liner is always specified for enclosed fires. They do not have enough air when throttled back for a normal flue to work, so give the above problems with smoke into the room. I would go for the rate of rise heat detector, probably less false alarms, someone is bound to have the door open in use at some point to make toast or something!

In my experience, smoke is much more likely to spill out from an open hearth.


CO detectors are mandatory. If the flue is (partially) blocked over an open hearth, the fire will probably never get going; but with a stove, it could smoulder and give off CO.


Occasionally birds fall down our chimneys. The tell tale sign in the stove was debris so I took off the inspection hatch at the bottom of the flue. I found either a crow or a very sooty pigeon.

My point was that if you get a lot of smoke, the installation may not be correct -  woodburners may be notifiable works to building control, but I think plenty just appear in fire places without the paper trail  or more importantly proper testing,, and not always following the best advice.

I have recently seen one where the neighbour's builders removed the chimney breast upstairs, without realising that the chimney pots for the two houses were front and rear rather than either side , (i.e.two chimneys, one per house, forming a wider but less intrusive column as a bulge in the party wall)  and they left both pipes, including the one  to next door's woodburner,  open to the bedroom at floor level.

Luckily the bits of brick dropping into the grate alerted the side with the wood burner, and in the end the whole thing became more comic than tragic, and the chance was take to fit a proper flue liner as well as to reinstate half a chimney breast, but it could have been nasty, - if it misbehaves it may be wrong -  there are some very funny set-ups out there.

Mike.

owwh Nasty!