FIRE FIRE FIRE !! Smoke Alarm tip

[csc]

Friend recently had a fire in their house, quite severe damage.

Caused by downlights (nothing new).

Fireman suggested they install a hard wired fire alarm up in the ceiling as an extra precaution in the future...........He said if everyone did it more people would be alive today cause fires in the ceiling are rarely noticed until its too late and the ceiling collapses before people have the chance to exit the premises.

Friends were lucky their fire happened at lunch time when someone was home and awake.

Food for thought..surprised its not promoted more actually cause it makes good sense to me especially with so many electrical cables often running through ceilings.

Cheers...........

 

[WinstonWolfe]

I can't believe downlights are allowed to be installed in their current format.
They get as hot as hades and it is easy for dust, ceiling joists, or insulation to absorb that heat. Even the transformers get hot and just seem to be placed willy nilly by installers.

They should have a protective cup and be fluorescent or some other technology to stop the intense dangerous waste of electricity via heat.

 

[csc]

I can't believe downlights are allowed to be installed in their current format.
They get as hot as hades and it is easy for dust, ceiling joists, or insulation to absorb that heat. Even the transformers get hot and just seem to be placed willy nilly by installers.

They should have a protective cup and be fluorescent or some other technology to stop the intense dangerous waste of electricity via heat.

i agree 100%, too many cheap imports sold doesnt help ....id never have them, heard of too many fires cause by them............

 

[Aaron Sice]

canister lights require a protective HD plastic cup over them.

but a smoke alarm in the ceiling in a bonza idea - i'm on it!

 

[redwing]

canister lights require a protective HD plastic cup over them.

but a smoke alarm in the ceiling in a bonza idea - i'm on it!

I've come across a number of commercial buildings where they have this, it has made it interesting in the past when looking at a Fire Indicator Panel and tracking down the cause of an alarm

 

[handyandy]

A twist on this suggestion is instead of smoke alarm is to have a heat alarm installed in the attic that is wired back to a smoke alarm.

Method outlined here

http://www.cleverhome.com.au/automation/Clipsal-755H-heat-detector-756-interface.pdf

In the case that either one detects a problem both detectors will alarm.

Cheers

 

[AlmostBob]

down lights, gazillions of watts to light up no space, marvelously inefficient
expensive
and,

they burn the house down​

what a bargain
someone somewhen somewhere came up with it, and probably got an award for it from other idiots, wonder if that house is still standing

 

[steveadl]

Perhaps a stupid question, but is it worth putting a smoke alarm in a house that doesn't have down lights, or is there nothing else that can really cause a fire in the roof?

 

[wylie]

Perhaps a stupid question, but is it worth putting a smoke alarm in a house that doesn't have down lights, or is there nothing else that can really cause a fire in the roof?

Rats gnawing through electric wires would do a pretty good job, so I feel confident there are other things in the roofspace that could cause a fire. I know that we have a flat section of roof with light cable running through it to an external floodlight. Rats have chewed through the wire so we had the sparky disconnect it. To fix it meant lifting the roof, on which is sitting the solar heating rubber. I don't think we need the light that much.

 

[softmonkey]

Given that downlight guards only recently became mandatory, it'd be good to know if this person (and other house-burnt-down stories) was using them or not.

AFAIK - The older transformers did run hot (and do need a separate guard for them too) but the new ones run a lot cooler, can sit on top of insulation and even if they were to overheat they have built in safety cut-offs. On top of that, don't overwork them - have just one downlight instead of 2-3 per transformer and they'll be quite happy. (disclaimer: that's just my understanding from my own research and installation - do your own research too please!)

Good tip on the roofspace smoke alarm however, and it's something I expect will be passed into law in the next decade or so.

 

[Ausprop]

A twist on this suggestion is instead of smoke alarm is to have a heat alarm installed in the attic that is wired back to a smoke alarm.

Method outlined here

http://www.cleverhome.com.au/automation/Clipsal-755H-heat-detector-756-interface.pdf

In the case that either one detects a problem both detectors will alarm.

Cheers

wouldn't a heat alarm in the roof go off every 5 minutes in summer?? the brochure says they kick in at 78 degrees - a good 45 degree day should set it off?

 

[handyandy]

wouldn't a heat alarm in the roof go off every 5 minutes in summer?? the brochure says they kick in at 78 degrees - a good 45 degree day should set it off?

Doesn't seem to be a problem so far, second summer coming up. Had two installed in the ceiling of a block of units have not had any false alarms.

Cheers

 

[AlmostBob]

the heat alarms in our boiler rooms have a 'rising rate' sensor
they will go very hot, but go off if the temperature change is faster than 5 degC/minute