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New Scottish law on interconnected fire alarms


colin20

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Hello guys, there is a new Scottish law on having interconnected fire alarms in all houses come February next year.

 

Interconnected seems to mean a wireless system nowadays. My wife hates wi-fi equipment and refuses to have that, and I was wondering if any companies still do interconnection by thin cable between detectors, using 9V battery operated smoke detectors and 9V battery heat detector (kitchen). These used to be around in the 1990's as I installed them before in another house, but can only find wireless type now.

 

I would not mind wiring up 3 smoke detectors and one heat detector with cable. But do not want a 240V AC system , just 9V batteries in each detector with an auxiliary contact in each to get all bells operating at the same time.

 

If you could point me to any companies that still do these systems that would be really good,thanks.

 

PS...Scotland is the first to do this, but i think the rest of the UK will follow, and it is us houseowners that have to pay for it, Grrh!

 

 

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2 hours ago, colin20 said:

Hello guys, there is a new Scottish law on having interconnected fire alarms in all houses come February next year.

 

Interconnected seems to mean a wireless system nowadays. My wife hates wi-fi equipment and refuses to have that, and I was wondering if any companies still do interconnection by thin cable between detectors, using 9V battery operated smoke detectors and 9V battery heat detector (kitchen). These used to be around in the 1990's as I installed them before in another house, but can only find wireless type now.

 

I would not mind wiring up 3 smoke detectors and one heat detector with cable. But do not want a 240V AC system , just 9V batteries in each detector with an auxiliary contact in each to get all bells operating at the same time.

 

If you could point me to any companies that still do these systems that would be really good,thanks.

 

PS...Scotland is the first to do this, but i think the rest of the UK will follow, and it is us houseowners that have to pay for it, Grrh!

 

 

You got a link to the new law?

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12 hours ago, al-yeti said:

You got a link to the new law?

https://www.gov.scot/news/changes-to-fire-safety-laws/             Basically BS5839 Part 6 LD which is installed into new builds and anything that requires building control. New Scottish law says that has to be installed into all existing buildings. Feck knows how they think they are going to Police that though.

 

Colin I do understand that you wife doesnt like the idea of wireless, there are several theories that wireless is the root of all evil. However, the wireless smoke detectors are not transmitting wireless signals all the time, they only transmit when they are activated. So in other words when you have a fire in the hallway it transmits to the landing so both detectors activate. When there are no fires there is no wireless signal so nothing to worry about, I hope this helps

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1 hour ago, PeterJames said:

https://www.gov.scot/news/changes-to-fire-safety-laws/             Basically BS5839 Part 6 LD which is installed into new builds and anything that requires building control. New Scottish law says that has to be installed into all existing buildings. Feck knows how they think they are going to Police that though.

 

Colin I do understand that you wife doesnt like the idea of wireless, there are several theories that wireless is the root of all evil. However, the wireless smoke detectors are not transmitting wireless signals all the time, they only transmit when they are activated. So in other words when you have a fire in the hallway it transmits to the landing so both detectors activate. When there are no fires there is no wireless signal so nothing to worry about, I hope this helps

It's a start though , so in Scotland you can get fined before something happens , otherwise England? Generally nothing happens until something happens , then they check what was and wasn't done 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, al-yeti said:

It's a start though , so in Scotland you can get fined before something happens , otherwise England? Generally nothing happens until something happens , then they check what was and wasn't done 

 

 

As I said I dont think Scotland will be able to Police it and so it will be pretty much the same as the UK, ie a fatal fire is investigated and its found that the homeowner did not have interlinked smoke detectors. Mind you if the fatality is the homeowner the gov cant exactly fine them

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18 hours ago, PeterJames said:

As I said I dont think Scotland will be able to Police it and so it will be pretty much the same as the UK, ie a fatal fire is investigated and its found that the homeowner did not have interlinked smoke detectors. Mind you if the fatality is the homeowner the gov cant exactly fine them

Fatal fire, equipment installed by someone else? 

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On 19/09/2021 at 12:13, PeterJames said:

https://www.gov.scot/news/changes-to-fire-safety-laws/             Basically BS5839 Part 6 LD which is installed into new builds and anything that requires building control. New Scottish law says that has to be installed into all existing buildings. Feck knows how they think they are going to Police that though.

 

Colin I do understand that you wife doesnt like the idea of wireless, there are several theories that wireless is the root of all evil. However, the wireless smoke detectors are not transmitting wireless signals all the time, they only transmit when they are activated. So in other words when you have a fire in the hallway it transmits to the landing so both detectors activate. When there are no fires there is no wireless signal so nothing to worry about, I hope this helps

Hello PeterJames, can you give me a website link that shows me and particularly my wife, that the wireless smoke detectors do not transmit all the time and instead only transmit wireless when activated. This would help alleviate my wife's worry about wireless transmitting all the time in a room.

 

Edited by colin20
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34 minutes ago, colin20 said:

This would help alleviate my wife's worry about wireless transmitting all the time in a room.

Some points. If a battery device was transmitting all the time with the size of the battery they have, how long do you / she think it would last?

Also the power transmission is very very low, tv radio etc would be in the area all the time.

I assume she doesnt use a mobile phone?

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43 minutes ago, colin20 said:

Hello PeterJames, can you give me a website link that shows me and particularly my wife, that the wireless smoke detectors do not transmit all the time and instead only transmit wireless when activated. This would help alleviate my wife's worry about wireless transmitting all the time in a room.

 

Hi Colin

 

I doubt any of the manufacturers would actually state that they dont transmit all the time anywhere on the paperwork. Between me and you, its sort of obvious this is how they work?. If they transmitted all the time they would be telling one and other to sound all the time.

 

Think about this logically if you want a light to come on in your house you have to switch a switch. The smoke detectors work the same way, if  they want to tell the other smoke detector to sound they transmit a signal. If they worked the other way around it would be a waste of power, and if you had more than two detectors it would never work as the ones not triggered by smoke would still be constantly transmitting 

 

So in basic terms: These type of detectors are activated either by smoke or by a wireless signal from another detector. For example if smoke is detected in the hallway, the smoke detector in the hallway sounds and at the same time tells all the other detectors in the house by transmitting a signal this tells the other detectors to sound.

 

All the smoke detectors are waiting to recieve a signal all the time, albeit wireless or smoke, but receiving is not the same as transmitting in the same way that listening is not the same as shouting

 

I hope this helps

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It will vary by model and manufacturer, in theory they could poll each other I doubt the majority for domestic do. If they are mains powered and radio interlinked then battery power is less of an issue.

I fully agree that the emissions from this stuff is negligible your neighbours WiFi, nearby cell towers, traffic lights....(list goes on) will be emitting more energy.

I have already posted a type suitable if you don't want wireless.

 

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Its very unlikely that they poll each other, what could be gained by this? Its different if they were polling a control panel as the control panel would tell you a detector had failed to poll. But there is just nothing to be gained polling between detectors on their own.

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34 minutes ago, Shaunb1905 said:

They will never be able to police this. Will only come about when you try sell your house surely?

That's what I said, but house sales would be a problem, and if there is a fatal fire someone will be prosecuted, just like in the uk 

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On 25/09/2021 at 08:27, al-yeti said:

I don't get the op he's worried about WiFi? And not worried about anything else , so what about his neighbours ? And everything else 

 

Op has no idea how much RF is floating through there heads.....

That's what the tin foil hat is for dummy!

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Going by the above,  it looks like there is no longer any 9V battery interconnected hardwired systems anymore, pity.

 

So its either wi-fi or hardwired 240V systems or stuff this new law. I will leave it at that thanks, 

Edited by colin20
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15 hours ago, colin20 said:

Going by the above,  it looks like there is no longer any 9V battery interconnected hardwired systems anymore, pity.

 

So its either wi-fi or hardwired 240V systems or stuff this new law. I will leave it at that thanks, 

Lol

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19 hours ago, colin20 said:

Going by the above,  it looks like there is no longer any 9V battery interconnected hardwired systems anymore, pity.

 

So its either wi-fi or hardwired 240V systems or stuff this new law. I will leave it at that thanks, 

good luck

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On 28/09/2021 at 23:33, colin20 said:

Going by the above,  it looks like there is no longer any 9V battery interconnected hardwired systems anymore, pity.

 

So its either wi-fi or hardwired 240V systems or stuff this new law. I will leave it at that thanks, 

Best to check with your wife

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