Fires can be triggered by various causes, making it essential to prepare for every scenario. A critical aspect of a fire safety system is having the alarms strategically placed in your property.
Smoke alarms are a common type of fire alarm found in homes. These devices use an optical sensor with infrared beams to detect smoke particles, effectively identifying fires caused by smouldering materials like wood and cotton or flaming plastics.
While essential for detecting smoke-producing fires, smoke alarms are not designed to handle all scenarios.
To address these gaps in protection, heat alarms play a vital role in ensuring comprehensive fire protection. But what are heat alarms, what is a heat alarm used for and how do they differ from smoke alarms?
Unlike smoke alarms, heat alarms detect temperature changes. Aico’s heat alarms are equipped with a thermistor sensor that activates when temperatures of 58°C are reached. This makes heat alarms particularly useful in areas like kitchens and garages, where traditional smoke alarms may cause nuisance alarms due to cooking or other common activities. For instance, steam from cooking could trigger a smoke alarm unnecessarily, but a heat alarm remains unaffected in such cases.
A truly effective fire safety system combines both smoke alarms and heat alarms. Smoke alarms provide coverage for fires that produce smoke, while heat alarms address high-temperature fires without visible smoke. Placing the right alarm in the right location ensures comprehensive protection, keeping your home and family safe from a wide range of fire risks.
When it comes to heat alarm installation it is important to consider the sensors and how they may react to their environments. Aico recommends siting heat alarms in rooms which smoke alarms may falsely activate as per British Standard, BS 5839-6:2019. Specifically, these would be the kitchen and garage.
Aico heat alarms provide a 5.3m radius of coverage, therefore, they should generally be sited centrally within a room. Additionally, Aico heat sensors cannot be wall-mounted, so should always be installed on a ceiling. When siting in a kitchen, make sure to consider the location of your cooker and hobs, preferably allowing a 1m distance between appliances and your alarm, to lessen the likelihood of a false alarm.
The main reason for fitting heat alarms in dwellings is to ensure that when there is a fire, sufficient early warning is given so that everybody can escape safely. This means that the fire alarms should ideally be located near all potential sources of fires and that the alarm should be heard throughout the house – particularly in the bedrooms.
When fitting a heat alarm, it must always be ceiling-mounted and, where possible, central in the room. If the alarm cannot be central, it should be fitted no less than 300mm away from walls, light fittings, and other obstructions. It is important to understand that it is possible for a heat alarm to falsely react to its environment, for example, if you fit the alarm directly above the oven or hob, the increased temperature whilst cooking could activate the alarm. Aico recommends that any heat alarms are installed at least 1m from kitchen appliances to avoid this scenario.
When fitting a heat alarm on a peaked ceiling, BS 5839-62019+A1:2020 recommends that the alarm be sited so that the thermistor is between 25mm and 150mm below the ceiling. The British Standards outline best practices for fire alarm installation. Sloped ceilings are treated the same unless the drop between the peak and eaves is less than 600mm, if this is the case it should be treated as a flat ceiling.
If the ceiling has beams less than 10% of the room height, then any alarms should be sited twice the width of the beam or 500mm away, whichever is less. In the case of ceilings with beams more than 10% of the room height, the beam should be treated as a wall and an alarm should be placed on either side of the beam or on the underside of the beam if it is less than 600mm deep.
Aico’s Ei3024 Multi-Sensor Fire Alarm contains an optical and heat sensor to provide a total fire response. Intelligent software allows the two proven, reliable sensors to work together to detect all fire types with an increased resistance to false alarms.
At Aico, we recommend that your fire alarms are tested at least once a month to ensure that they are working properly and can alert you to any dangers in the home. To test your alarm, all you need to do is carry out these simple steps:
Discover the importance of testing your alarms.
Additionally, maintaining your alarm and keeping it clean is essential for your safety at home. Heat alarm maintenance should take place every 6 months, making sure that there is nothing inside that could accidentally trigger a nuisance alarm, such as a build-up of dust or an insect.
To clean your mains-powered alarm, ensure power to the alarm is turned off – this will be made clear by the green light which should go out. You can then use the narrow attachment on your hoover to vacuum around the vents of the alarm and use a damp cloth to clean the cover of the alarm – but make sure to dry it afterwards with a lint-free cloth. Once complete, turn on the mains power again and ensure the green light is on.
To ensure a comprehensive fire safety system, combining smoke alarms with heat alarms is essential. Assess your current fire safety setup, ensure alarms are correctly sited, and replace any improperly positioned or outdated devices – adding a heat alarm to areas like the kitchen and garage is a crucial step toward achieving full home protection.
Explore Aico’s full range of battery-powered and mains-powered heat alarms and other home protection products today.
