radio link smoke alarm bases

[jaydee81]

been to a barn conversion today converted about 2 years ago and wired by a couple of clowns.was there installing outside lights but thats another story but looking round the property i noticed that all smoke alarms 8 in total were all fitted on a radio link base now my understanding is that you only need two radio link bases ie upstairs and downstairs and the rest can be interlinked as normal? cant understand why they did it this way!

 

[Steve_P]

Only reason would be because they couldn't be bothered or couldn't work out how to interlink them. Oh or when there's exposed roof timbers the extra cables look naff.

 

[Octopus]

Sounds like lazy installers and clients happy to pay for the radio bases

 

[Wonderwall]

I think you might find they have been done as an after thought so they would have trouble physically interconnecting them

 

[jaydee81]

linked all downstairs smokes in 1mm t&e why not use 3 core? previously spent a day on same job sorting out underfloor heating 4 manifolds and 4 wiring centres and only one worked the boiler 3/4 of the house was cold they made a right mess of it and outside lighting was a joke. and customer still paid a fortune for the install

 

[Octopus]

]linked all downstairs smokes in 1mm t&e why not use 3 core?[/B] previously spent a day on same job sorting out underfloor heating 4 manifolds and 4 wiring centres and only one worked the boiler 3/4 of the house was cold they made a right mess of it and outside lighting was a joke. and customer still paid a fortune for the install

Sounds like they didn't know what they were doing!

 

[jaydee81]

no they dont and all this from a nic domestic installer how they pass assessment every year i dont know

 

[Pat Tester]

I think you will find that if you are installing more than two alarms then testing and location of sounding alarm is possible by using a wireless control panel this provides test, silence, and locate without wiring all alarms back to that point. But it only works when all alarms are on wireless bases. In HMO's this is the way it should be done to avoid a hell of a lot of extra cable.

 

[vjsmarwick]

if it was this bad should you not be pointing out the problems to the nic and get them removed from the scheme ? dont you feel any responsibility to help protect others for being ripped off ?

 

[jaydee81]

didnt think nic would be interested! have picked up a few of there customer recently so thats a start

 

[Amp David]

been to a barn conversion today converted about 2 years ago and wired by a couple of clowns.was there installing outside lights but thats another story but looking round the property i noticed that all smoke alarms 8 in total were all fitted on a radio link base now my understanding is that you only need two radio link bases ie upstairs and downstairs and the rest can be interlinked as normal? cant understand why they did it this way!

Reason for all 8 being on radio linked bases is probably because they were installed after everything was finished, and they couldn't pull a 3 core around the building to interlink them.

Thats the whole idea of these bases.

 

[dagrat]

Agree with David, the whole point was probably to avoid installing the cables, particularly as its a barn conversion with plenty of bare timber

 

[richy3333]

if it was this bad should you not be pointing out the problems to the nic and get them removed from the scheme ? dont you feel any responsibility to help protect others for being ripped off ?

NICEIC won't act unless the complaint comes from a customer. Else they say it's sparkies squabbling (irrespective of whether they are or aren't).

 

[BillyH]

Radio bases are a great idea in barn conversions. As said before, it's not always that easy to get the cable link in.

 

[dagrat]

Not sure what the fuss is, Really don't think there is any problem with using these bases.

 

[jaydee81]

is no problem using radio link bases have used them myself on several occasions when i cant get a cable from upstairs to downstairs just dont understand why they took the time to wire all smokes on the same circuit in 1mm t&e when you could just run 3 core and interlink them as normal