Smoke alarm question

goldenboy1818 said:

Also with solar would you put a smoke in a loft, this wasnt really covered. A solar team told me only if its covering the battery but the aico guy seemed to say if anything was up there including the inverter 

Yes, also LD1 system ... although with any category of system BS 5839-6 recommends that where any electronic equipment (and an inverter is given as an example) is installed in locations that are not frequently visited (lofts are given as an example), detection is provided. Clause references in BS 5839-6 as follows that cover this issue:

• LD2 system, Clause 11.1.1 recommends Category LD2 systems to incorporate a smoke or multi-sensor detector in lofts.
• LD1 system, Clause 11.2 g) recommends smoke or heat detection to be installed in lofts in Category LD1 system
• Any category of system: Clause 11.2 p) recommends smoke, heat, or multi-sensor detection/alarm where PV power systems, boilers and UPS systems are installed in loft spaces.

goldenboy1818 said:

Also with solar would you put a smoke in a loft, this wasnt really covered. A solar team told me only if its covering the battery but the aico guy seemed to say if anything was up there including the inverter 

Yes, also LD1 system ... although with any category of system BS 5839-6 recommends that where any electronic equipment (and an inverter is given as an example) is installed in locations that are not frequently visited (lofts are given as an example), detection is provided. Clause references in BS 5839-6 as follows that cover this issue:

• LD2 system, Clause 11.1.1 recommends Category LD2 systems to incorporate a smoke or multi-sensor detector in lofts.
• LD1 system, Clause 11.2 g) recommends smoke or heat detection to be installed in lofts in Category LD1 system
• Any category of system: Clause 11.2 p) recommends smoke, heat, or multi-sensor detection/alarm where PV power systems, boilers and UPS systems are installed in loft spaces.

I do wonder about the practicality of these standards, yes clearly you would want some form of fire detection in an unoccupied space like the loft where the equipment presents the risk of a fire starting and going undetected, but if the loft space is uninhabited, so a regular loft subject to dust, insects and extreme temperatures, then the practicalities are far from straightforward.

The standards propose smoke alarms, but read any manufacturers instructions for a smoke alarm and typically they all state that smoke alarms should not be used in spaces subject to dust, insects or temperature extremes, so basically unsuitable for use in a loft space because of the risk of false triggering. So the standards call for smoke alarms, but actually most smoke alarms are not suitable for lofts.

Heat alarms are more immune to dust and insects, but even then they are designed for ambient temperatures in habitable spaces and some of the maximum ambient temperatures for heat alarms provide little or no margin for the potential hot summer temperatures you might find in a loft, making false triggering a potential problem even with heat alarms.

And of course if a heat alarm in a loft does incorrectly trigger, it's not always trivial to reset it, cool it down to stop it re-alarming, the poor old householder is actually in a something of a pickle for how they stop their interlinked alarms going off. I wonder if it needs something more robust, like availability of heat detectors purposely designed with increased temperature ratings for a loft space.