Hi Michael

Your house requires a system designed and installed to Grade A LD2 which is a full fire alarm system.

Your electricians are right not to get involved in something that will not conform to building regulations.

You should have been made aware of this at the design stage along with costs.

1 minute ago, Simlec said:

Hi Michael

Your house requires a system designed and installed to Grade A LD2 which is a full fire alarm system.

Your electricians are right not to get involved in something that will not conform to building regulations.

You should have been made aware of this at the design stage along with costs.

 

Thanks, I was initially advised it needs Grade B, LD2 .. are you sure it's Grade A , The architect and BC both initially specc'd it at design stage as Grade B, and then...still at design stage they approved it to not require grade B such to allow it to be interlinked.

 

However A and B has a single point of failure in the central system (worse - if it set on fire itself, as rare as that may be) unlike battery backed up interlinked which has no single point of failure - so where I'm protecting my family I want the best solution and that's where BC have agreed interlinked is better for my situation.

 

Think of it like this...what is better, 10 security guards each with a megaphone and a walkie talkie (equivalent of interlinked) or 1 security guard with 9 CCTV screens and a megaphone (centralised system)?

 

It's somewhat a grey area for the electricians ... I agree, I just want a solution that is safe and best for my family and I simply have no good defense as to why for a one family dewlling that centralised is better than interlinked....I would welcome any defense here as I really would like someone to give a good reason why a robust interlinked is a worse solution to a cheaper centralised system?

 

 

They both should be working to BS 5839-6

 

Thanks for that Simlec ! How bizarre that both specced/requested Grade B - i don't think there's much difference with Grade A (but will check exactly what). whilst reluctant for the reasons above, I'm likely going to centralised now anyway and will probably add in some standalone detectors for peace of mind, so hopefully grade A won't make too much difference..will find out.

 

As you can see Part B of building regs asks for grade B but from an out dated document. It should be BS 5839-6:2013

BS 5839-6:2013 supersedes BS 5839-6:2004, which is withdrawn.

Have you considered a small wireless fire alarm system? Something like a EMS Firecell - theres others out there and eliminates need for wiring once the spur is done

36 minutes ago, firemonkey said:

Have you considered a small wireless fire alarm system? Something like a EMS Firecell - theres others out there and eliminates need for wiring once the spur is done

A bit pointless on a new build.

Are you fitting cctv? Put a camera looking at the panel display if you want to see which detector activated without going to the panel, or fit some repeater displays around the house.

other alternative is wire the fire panels printer output to the nvrs serial port and set a camera up as POS capture.

Fitted a couple of Rick O'Shea smokes the other day.

I quite like them, they are like having stand alone smokes but with the added benefit of the wireless.

I could see them being used for retrofitting in very small domestic max 3-4 points, even if the mesh drops off you have stand alone protection.

Would be nice if there was option for external power tho.

 

On 21/02/2017 at 08:55, datadiffusion said:

McMansion on a budget for someone that can't quite afford it?

What sort of answer is that ? - you’re meant to be a moderator…McModerator that’s as useful as a chocolate fireguard !