How many fire alarms in a house

[diamond4u]

How many fire alarms should we have in a house. My parents house has a fire alarm in every single room in the house, hallways and the kitchen. However we've been told by my annoying bil that you only require 2 in the house, one in the downstairs hallway and one upstairs. How does that make sense. So if we have a fire at the back of our house, we will wait for that to reach the hallway til we are aware of it? Or what if there's a fire inside one of the closed rooms, it would take a long while for it to reach the hallway alarm

I say annoying bil because he thinks he's such a know it all, but I did google it and google seems to suggest the same 🙄

Your BIL is right.

I think your BIL is right.
But when we had our loft converted we had to put one in every room except the bathrooms so now we have millions of the bastards. I forget why but fire regs required it.

I have one upstairs and one downstairs.

We've got one on each floor plus another in annexe and others in outbuildings. I think the best way to consider it is to get someone to test one somewhere while you go elsewhere. Can you still hear it? And most importantly is it loud enough to wake you up?

We have one per floor, in the hallway/landings.

I’d say kitchen as well co2 alarm.. most prominent place and then hallway downstairs and one downstairs.. I guess depending on what type of fire system (if any) you had in the living room then you may put one in there as well.

I wouldn’t say every room though because if it went of in a bedroom you would wake people in the household. These days they disturb neighbours less but if you had one in every room than they might cause a nuisance to neighbours

It's the current fire regulations, we did some building work and had to put them in every room. They also have to be connected to mains electricity and are interlinked so if one goes off, they all go off...

Depends where you live. There are new regulations for Scotland and I think it means lounge, hallways and kitchen all need them and they have to be interlinked. It's going to cost loads to replace our normal existing ones.

We have 2 currently - 1 in the upstairs hall and 1 in the downstairs hall. They are interlinked so if one goes off they both do.

The law is changing in Scotland and was supposed to be in place by February 2021 but has been delayed due to covid. I don't know if anything is changing elsewhere in the UK:

How many alarms are required to meet the standards?

A:The standard requires:

• one smoke alarm installed in the room most frequently used for general daytime living purposes
• one smoke alarm in every circulation space on each storey, such as hallways and landings
• one heat alarm installed in every kitchen

All alarms should be ceiling mounted and interlinked.

Where there is a carbon-fuelled appliance (such as boilers, fires (including open fires) and heaters) or a flue, a carbon monoxide detector is also required which does not need to be linked to the fire alarms.

We have more than two, downstairs just the one but have them in each bedroom just to be safe. Only two when we moved in so two sounds correct.

They are smoke alarms and you need one on each floor. They don't detect fire, they detect a change in air density so can be set off by excess steam (e.g. if close to a bathroom and a lot of steam escapes out of the room) as well as by quite small amounts of smoke. So you don't need one in every room.

We have one in the hall by the kitchen door and one on the landing near the top of the stairs.

One on ground floor. One on the third floor.

That's getting a bit OTT for smaller houses/flats. We had a smoke alarm just outside our kitchen, which was tiny - about 2 sq m of floor. We had to remember to shut the doors (two half doors - no room for a full size door) before using the toaster or opening the oven, or all the flats in the block would have to evacuate.

We have one in each bedroom, one in the landing and one in our dining room (open plan downstairs layout) and a carbon monoxide alarm there too, average sized 3 bed family home.

Surely you should have one in each room someone sleeps in as smoke inhalation is one of the biggest concerns

I have a smoke alarm on each floor (4 floors) plus a heat detector in the kitchen and a c02 detector in the room where the boiler is. All mains wired in.

It depends on a) whether you want the bare minimum, and b) how much you value the lives of your family.

More smoke alarms = faster chance of being alerted to a fire.

We have one per floor, plus a heat detector in the kitchen

We have one in every room and in all hallways. Interlinked. One goes off, they all go off.

I was told to always have one in children's rooms because of the potential of electrical fires.

Just had ours checked and we need one on each floor, so three for us. Outside kitchen, outside living room, outside bedrooms ( town house).

It's the current fire regulations, we did some building work and had to put them in every room. They also have to be connected to mains electricity and are interlinked so if one goes off, they all go off...
Yes we had this too with our outbuildings/annexe when they were built - one in each connected to mains and they all go off if one does (though not in house, which is a lot older). I think we might upgrade to it as it's peace of mind to have one in every room. I always worry that we might sleep through the hallway ones.

My husband said the builders also put one in a storage cupboard, which I've never noticed! 😂

I live in a flat and amount of alarms is dictated by the building management. There's one in the hallway right outside the bathroom/kitchen doors, one in the lounge and another in the bedroom! They're no more than about 4 metres apart from each other

@AlwaysLatte do you live in a stately home?

@cooperage

They are smoke alarms and you need one on each floor. They don't detect fire, they detect a change in air density so can be set off by excess steam (e.g. if close to a bathroom and a lot of steam escapes out of the room) as well as by quite small amounts of smoke. So you don't need one in every room.

We have one in the hall by the kitchen door and one on the landing near the top of the stairs.

Totally wrong.

The main types of smoke alarms are ionisation and optical.

Ionisation have a radioactive element which generates a small current. When smoke enters the chamber (and it has to be smoke) the current changes and will set off the alarm. Even invisible smoke like you get from cooking toast will do it.

Optical alarms use infrared beams to detect physical particles of smoke (not steam).

Personally, in a domestic setting, I only use optical alarms. Slightly more expensive but never false alarm with cooking.