Smoke alarms

[Dave Peet]

Hi
Iv been asked to price the fitting of 4 smoke alarms and 1 heat detecter in a flat. Its got an old fuse box with no r.c.d. Im pretty sure that no r.c.d would be needed for this new smoke alarm circuit as the cables would not be in the wall, so all I would need to do is a minor works certificate and maybe recommend a new consumer unit or r.c.d main isolater. Could anybody tell me if that sounds about right
thanks

 

[goldie]

I always use dual split load boards when exchanging a consumer units but put safety cicuits ie fire alarm and intruder alarm on the main switch side protected by rcbo.

 

[malcolmsanford]

Hi
Iv been asked to price the fitting of 4 smoke alarms and 1 heat detecter in a flat. Its got an old fuse box with no r.c.d. Im pretty sure that no r.c.d would be needed for this new smoke alarm circuit as the cables would not be in the wall, so all I would need to do is a minor works certificate and maybe recommend a new consumer unit or r.c.d main isolater. Could anybody tell me if that sounds about right
thanks

Apart from not adhering to the regulations concerning division of the installation section 314, having a single upfront RCD is not perhaps the way I would go.

As it is a flat, I'd assume it doesn't have too many circuits I'd be recommending individual final circuit RCBOs

 

[Dave Peet]

ideally I would fit a new consumer unit as this is what i would normally do but these people want to spend as little as possible, the r.c.d. main isolater is a bad idea and i wont recommend that, thanks.

 

[telectrix]

in that situation i would just wire the smoke/heat alarms into the lighting circuit. as you say, if no cables are buried in walls, no RCD is rtequired, but certainly recommend a CU upgrade. remember to check main earthing and bonding is OK.