Just after a bit of a steer on smoke alarms. Have moved house and it has one ancient alarm so keen to improve things. Had a bit of a google and asked a couple of questions on here. I am planning to put the following in. Landing 2x Smoke Hall 1x Smoke Garage 1xHeat Kitchen 1xHeat Utility 1x C0 Front room (logburner) 1x CO Does this sound a reasonable plan. I am keen not to spend astronomical money. Open to advice on whether to use mains or battery. But would like them all (smoke, heat, C0) interlinked for definite. Preferably wireless. Looked at the Aico ranges but it seems like they all need alarm at around £50 plus another £45 for the transmitter for each one. So 7 alarms would be around £800. Do I have that right? What are opinions on the FireAngel WiSafe2 ones. The battery ones seem to not need a separate transmitter and are around £25 a piece. Are these reliable?
Aico is the only alarm I fit,costly yes, but they have a 10 year life span. Using Ei2110e Multi Sensor Fire Alarm,has optical plus heat sensor,& a Ei3028 Multi-Sensor Heat & CO Alarm here,both mains with 10 year rechargeable lithium battery, I bought the Ei3000MRF & Ei100MRF RadioLINK+ Modules cheap off Ebay. Could you use 10 year lithium CO alarms for utility/front room, cheaper, around £25 maybe less depending on the brand. Got Ei3028 on top landing, but also got a seperate CO alarm in airing cupboard where boiler lives.
Thanks for this. Ok so will definitely look into that. House is quite spread out so definitely want them all linked. Mains is just off a light fitting for these correct? Edit. They are much cheaper on ebay for the radio modules aren't they. nice one.
You only require CO alarms where there is a solid fuel appliance or a gas boiler. The Aico Ei140 range is best value which are mains with battery backup but not lithium. They all interlink. You might wish to consider their switch to test and silence the alarms, Ei1529RC. The model numbers you would need are Ei146RC optical, Ei144 Heat, and Ei 208 battery CO or Ei3018 mains CO. All very reasonably priced from a local electrical wholesaler. Don't use ionisation alarms they are old technology and contain radioactive material. Optical are best for any location.
Another Aico evangelist here. I only ever use that brand, and only ever use the mains with battery backup versions. Mostly wired interlinked, but on two occasions, I've used wireless interlink simply because I didn't have the correct wiring in place.
To the OP, you must not interlink smoke and CO detectors without an indicator as to what is alarming. This is why you really shouldn't be DIYing a life safety system - you simply don't know enough about how these must be installed.
With the greatest of respect, thats why I am asking for advice. So what would I need to show the reason for the alarm sounding Edit Checked the aico switch that unphased suggested. That is what you are suggesting correct.
Ok. Much appreciated. Thanks for the model numbers. There is a woodburner in the front room and an Lpg boiler in the utility. I will take a look at the switch.
If aico alarms are all connected then when one activates all alarms sound but only the initial alarm flashes. This will help identify the culprit. There’s also an app for the co alarms. Think this may be the newer stuff.
Ok so looking quite carefully at the 3000 series Aico ones. Have read through the instructions and it seems that the LEDs on it indicate which function is alarming. Also appears there may be some kind of an app that monitors them. Is this acceptable? I can't see anywhere on the spec that refers to any other form of indicator. Proposing to use Ei3016 Optical on landing and in hall. Ei3014 Heat in kitchen and garage. Ei3018 in Utility and Front Room. All with the Ei3000MRF module added on. Sound like a good plan?
Of course. In a domestic, one would like to be sure exactly what alarm is going off before vacating the premises.
I went for the FireAngel Wi-Safe2 10 year battery ones in the end. The cost of the Aico ones was really starting to mount up.
Had FireAngel a few years,ago some fitted by me, some in another property fitted by the Fire Brigade. Whether it was a faulty batch but they all failed in a few years and started the slow battery beep. With the beeping no courier or post office will transport and some you can't open to get to the long life battery, so bizarrely I had to destroy them to send them back. They sent replacements free of charge but they failed after a few years as well. So hold on to the receipts 10 years is a long time
Known of others having issues with Fire angel alarms. They weren't the only faulty brands. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money...rer-admits-90-000-popular-devices-faulty.html
Fully appreciate that. I plan to do plenty to this house and so will absolutely definitely be putting in an Aico mains system given time. Took a view that the FireAngel ones are a bit of a stopgap. They will be up quick as they are battery, are cost effective and if I get 5 yrs out of them I will be happy with that. At present we have one ancient smoke alarm and one c0 so its got to be an improvement.
I got my boiler serviced yesterday and the engineer asked where my Carbon Monoxide detector was - Job for the weekend
One thing I like about the nest system is that if you have their CO detector and their thermostat, then the CO detector will swith the boiler off if it detects a dangersous level of CO.