Security & tenant safety
flues passing through should also have an alarm. Building Regulations throughout the UK require CO alarms to varying
degrees, but only with installation of new or replacement combustion appliances – excluding those used for cooking, unlike the Standard. BS EN 50292’s more rigorous approach contrasts particularly starkly with the Part J Approved Document applying to England and Wales. This only requires a CO alarm with installation of certain, solid fuel heating
appliances. The rising toll of deaths and illness caused by carbon monoxide incidents associated with other fuels and types of combustion appliances, including cookers, highlights the urgent need for a better benchmark than this. It is also important to consider potential CO risks to and from adjacent properties or shared spaces.
installations. They require a CO alarm in every space containing a combustion appliance such as boilers, fires, heaters or stoves – whether using gas, oil, wood or other fuels. A CO alarm is also required where a flue passes through ‘high risk accommodation’, such as a bedroom or a main living room.
CARBON MONOXIDE ALARM STANDARD The latest guidance on CO alarms is provided by BS EN 50292:2013. It recommends that a CO alarm should be installed in every room containing a fuel-burning appliance plus other well-used rooms remote from the appliance, and all bedrooms. Where the number of CO alarms has to be limited, priority should be given
to any room containing a flue-less or open-flue appliance and where the occupants spend most time. In addition, rooms with extended or concealed
COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEMS According to all the Regulations and BS EN 50292:2013, alarms can be powered by batteries designed for the whole working life of the alarm, or by mains. Hard-wired alarms are easily installed in new-builds, or during refurbishments and rewiring, alongside hard-wired smoke and heat alarms to offer additional safety features. Examples include hard-wired CO alarms that interlink with each other but also with smoke and heat alarms that can all act as sounders to alert of either risk, forming comprehensive systems. Crucially, the alarms must have different, distinct alarm sounder patterns
for carbon monoxide and fire, as required by BS 5839-6 – and some are supported by different display messages on digital models. Some of these systems can therefore automatically alert occupants of the
specific hazard that confronts them. This allows occupants to respond quickly according to different scenarios caused by either fire or the presence of carbon monoxide.
Rex Taylor is technical support manager of Kidde Safety Europe
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM September 2017 | 47
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
