| Posted: Tuesday Oct 27th, 2009 07:34 pm |
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bryanajones
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What are the best (safest?) type of mains powered fire / smoke alarms to use in a family home and can anyone recommend some that I can link into comfort?
I'd need around 4 to cover every floor so could use some tips on how to wire them up (how do they wire to the mains? how do they link with each other? how do they link to Comfort? How does Comfort interface with them?)
Thanks
Bryan
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| Posted: Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 12:55 pm |
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slychiu
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I am more familiar with 12V smoke/heat detectors which are normally used with burglar alarms. These can be found in most alarm distributors catalogs
The voltage for these are supplied by Comfort and hence is battery backed up, in case of power failure, which I guess would not be the case for Mains powered detectors
The relay contacts of the smoke detectors are connected to any Comfort input
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| Posted: Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 01:22 pm |
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muddymickey
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Bryan
This is something I've been interested in too.
I'm a selfbuilder, and (as required by our building regulations) we had to have mains-powered, interlinked smoke alarms with battery backup.
I have 4 alarms - a heat detector in the kitchen (to avoid nuisance alarms when the toast gets slightly burnt), and 3 smoke detectors in the hallways.
The heat alarm is a Kidde Fyrnetics device, like this one:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/KD323slash9HILL.html
..and the smoke alarms are from the same series.
There is a datasheet here:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/DataSheets/Kidde/ManAC%20Inst%20Kidde%201235-7223-10.pdf
I think the requirement is that they are either powered from their own circuit in the consumer unit, or from a regularly-used lighting circuit (you'd need to check the actual requirement to be sure - you may find the latest wiring regs have changed to specify a separate circuit only).
Ours have their own circuit.
I have 2core+earth cable running from the consumer unit to the first alarm, and then the others are daisy-chained from that using 3core+earth cable, the third core being used for the interconnect.
I have been wondering how I might hook these into Comfort.
I guess when the alarms go off, there is a voltage present on the interconnect wire, that could be interfaced to a Comfort input.
But I don't know any details of voltage level.
Also, I'm not sure there is a interconnect voltage standard that different manufacturers use.
By the way, they ain't half noisy when they all sound together !!
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| Posted: Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 01:30 pm |
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| Posted: Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 01:38 pm |
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slychiu
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I suggest use the N/C contacts with double EOL so it can be monitored for open or short circuit
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| Posted: Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 10:06 pm |
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juwi_uk
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Hi I've installed AICO mains fire alarms with my Comfort System.
They have an optional relay base which I used to connect to a Comfort zone.
See: http://www.aico.co.uk/
Regards
Julian
Last edited on Wednesday Oct 28th, 2009 10:07 pm by juwi_uk
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| Posted: Friday Oct 30th, 2009 12:29 am |
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bryanajones
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so I'd be right in thinking that if theyre all interlinked then only one needs a base and that one base would connect to comfort?
muddymickey, so you have the mains smoke alarms but dont have them linked to comfort yet?
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| Posted: Friday Oct 30th, 2009 07:50 pm |
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juwi_uk
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Bryan,
Not sure if your question is aimed at my posting about the AICO alarms but if so you only need 1. In my setup I've actually used 2; one for upstairs and 1 for downstairs though that was really because I ordered 2 thinking the same as you that I might need...only to find 1 would have been fine. Hey Ho, got a bit of redundancy in my solution I suppose 
Julian
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| Posted: Tuesday Nov 24th, 2009 10:32 am |
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bryanajones
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Yes I was asking about the AICO, but then I guess it applies to all the others too.
Thanks for the reply!
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| Posted: Tuesday Nov 24th, 2009 11:35 am |
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bryanajones
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I'm looking at the AICO relay base and it reads: Volt-free relay contacts, rated at 240V 5A. Is this suitable for comfort?
Julian which AICO part numbers did you order (alarms and relays etc)?
Thanks
Bryan
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| Posted: Tuesday Nov 24th, 2009 07:47 pm |
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juwi_uk
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Hi,
I'm using Ei161 and Ei166 (whether you use the ionisation or optical types depends on where you are using. I'm using mine in the hallways so dont know if it matters that much as they both do much the same sensitivity-wise in this mode? Mix and match is probably a good choice though. Cant really advise beyond that as I'm no fire alarm consultant!. No different to buying at B&Q and trying to decide which is best.
I then use Ei128R relays. I use one upstairs and 1 downstairs connected to individual zone inputs. The idea is I have redundancy and if one breaks the other will still work. Because the alarms are linked by 3-core and earth cable they all go off at the same time anyway so you can probably do with just one relay.
Regards
Julian
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| Posted: Wednesday Nov 25th, 2009 03:31 pm |
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bryanajones
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so the Ei161 you've used is a 240v 5A volt free relay too? (not really sure what volt free means?)
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| Posted: Wednesday Nov 25th, 2009 04:31 pm |
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juwi_uk
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Nor me.
You have to but the ei161 and the ei128R and one sits on top of the other. There are no relays in the ei161.
Julian
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| Posted: Thursday Nov 26th, 2009 05:42 am |
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slychiu
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Volt-free (or "dry") contacts means that the relay contacts do not have any voltage.
The relay contacts can be connected to a Comfort Input which expects an open/close contact.
These mains operated heat and smoke detectors operate as standalone devices to sound when they detect smoke or heat but in order to connect to an alarm system, you need to have the relay base which provides a volt-free contact
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