What do you put on an EICR when there is no/faulty smoke detectors in a domestic property?

The culture around car failure is not as precautionary, we don't generally change things that are not already broken, or showing signs of wear - brake pads are changed by condition, not age, and while in Germany brake hoses and rubbery suspension parts seem to be changed every 5 years if needed or not, here we seem happy to wait for them to fail or for the MOT inspector to comment. Partly of course because most car accidents are not mechanical failure so much as the nut behind the wheel as it were.

I mention this in part because often on this forum we try and engineer out the human element completely, and I think this is rarely  possible. Folk at some situation will fit the wrong lamp, or leave the covers off, or trail leads out of doorways and there is not a lot we can do about it apart from say 'it was not designed for that' , In the same way we cannot force folk to check their smoke alarms or RCDs.

Mike 

1. On the idea of changing pyrotechnics on air bags. Looking at the way the air bags are buried inside the dash of my 10byear old padsat I have a feeling it would be at least  £1,000 ro replace the pyrotechnics  probably much more.

Try £500-odd for a spark plug change every 4 years irrespective of mileage!

You might just get the owner of a low-mileage 10 y.o. car to pay for new air bag bits, but unlikely at 20 years. The thing is that modern cars do not rust to bits like they used to do.

However, if the test button of your 10 y.o. smoke alarms still works, why change them? Why indeed if they are mains-powered?

We rarely do inspections in domestic dwellings, but I guess it would be perfectly reasonable to highlight the issue as an observation on the EICR. Mind you, we did the first periodic inspection on a Council Civic centre some five years after it was built. The building accommodated many council functions, including Building Control. Above the suspended ceilings on one floor, I was astounded to find fire dampers on the ventilation system set back well clear of the fire resisting walls through which the ducting was passing and a general failure to seal around such ducting on all floors. So, I mentioned the issue as a "note only" in the observation section of the EICR.

Five years later, during a subsequent periodic inspection, it was evident that the issue hadn't been addressed. So, while on site, I nobbled a guy I knew in Building Control and showed him the previous report.

His simple explanation; if an EICR has a satisfactory designation, no one reads beyond the first page where that statement is made. Council don't have the funds to cope with code 3 issues or any other issue that isn't in need of urgent attention.

Now, if I come across issues that are not directly related to electrical safety, I send a separate email to the client to alert them to it. Copy retained.

Not as such, but they do have continual built-in-test and a warning light on the dash to indicate if there is a problem.

JME said:

What do you put on an EICR when there is no/faulty smoke detectors in a domestic property?

I will offer a slightly different view here.

Regulation 560.10 requires fire detection and fire alarm systems to conform to BS 5839 series. 

Therefore, you might take the view that:

1. If there is no existing system, that (depending on the scope of the EICR) it could be argued no code is needed; 
2. However, if there is an existing system that does not conform to BS 5839 series (for example a detector is obviously broken or has been purposefully removed, in a place where one ought to be, then it could be considered to be a non-conformity to BS 7671, that should at least be documented (C3).

Building Control acts as a key health and safety regulator as well which means that BC is stretched even further thus unfortunately they do not always have the time to follow up on things.  This will unfortunately lead to a building catastrophe before people realise that BC can not do everything that is required of them.  In essence they need to increase their personnel numbers of fully trained inspectors that have specialities in things like

Damp/Moisture

Electrical

Plumbing/heating/Air source

They need to look a project in a whollistic way.  Eg. A domestic dwelling how does BS 5839 apply and this would change lets say it it is rented. A school would take other parts from BS 5839 and other BS and CDM.  As would an office block.

In short with the amount of buildings being constructed or altered BC need to be allocated more fully trained and competent resource.