Owain wrote:
The Medway Handyman wrote:
Doing some work for a guy who is abroad & has let his house. I have
a list of exactly what he wants done and one item is 'fit smoke
alarm'. The tenant says it must be a mains smoke alarm to comply with
'the
regulations'. Is this right? If so it's going to come to a lot
more than installing a battery model.
Anyone know? Is it building regs or something else?

If it's a new conversion to comply with Building Regs, or is covered
by HMO Regs, then those are the regs in question. otherwise AFAIK any
smoke alarm is acceptable. The insurers or letting agent might have
their own requirements though.

Part B of Schedule 1 to the Building Regulations 1991. ...1.4 The
smoke alarms should be mains-operated and conform to BS 5446
.............. ........They may have a secondary power supply such as
a battery (either rechargeable or replaceable) or capacitor. More
information on power supplies is given in clause 13 of BS 5839: Part
6: 1995.
However a mains powered battery one is much less likely to be disabled
by a tenant 'borrowing' the battery (although this sounds like a nice
conscientious tenant...)

A fairly easy way of fitting one would be:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...afe/index.html

Thanks, saw that & thought it would be ideal, except they have a four
spotlight thingy on the landing.

I'll have to take a feed from that.


--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257