Answer library
The common arrangement is at least one alarm per storey on the escape route — hallway and landing — with a heat alarm rather than a smoke alarm in the kitchen, since cooking sets smoke alarms off. Alarms for new work should be mains-powered with a backup supply and interlinked , so that one detecting fire sounds them all.
8 questions in this topic. General UK guidance, not advice about a specific property.
The common arrangement is at least one alarm per storey on the escape route — hallway and landing — with a heat alarm rather than a smoke alarm in the kitchen, since cooking sets smoke alarms off.
Alarms for new work should be mains-powered with a backup supply and interlinked, so that one detecting fire sounds them all. Living rooms are commonly included as well.
For new installations and conversions, yes — interlinking is expected so an alarm anywhere sounds everywhere, which is the whole point when people are asleep upstairs and a fire starts downstairs.
Interlinking can be hard-wired or wireless (radio-interlinked). Wireless is often the practical route in an occupied house, since it avoids running interconnect cable through finished ceilings.
For an owner-occupier with no building work, a sealed 10-year-battery alarm is far better than nothing and satisfies the basic duty in England to have working alarms. For new build, conversions and material alterations, mains-powered interlinked alarms with battery backup are what Building Regulations expect.
Scotland requires interlinked alarms in every home, which can be met with sealed tamper-proof battery units or mains ones.
In England, since October 2022, landlords must provide at least one smoke alarm on every storey with living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance (excluding gas cookers). Alarms must be repaired or replaced once reported faulty.
They must be working at the start of each new tenancy. HMO licence conditions often require more than this baseline.
A CO alarm is required in any room used as living accommodation containing a fixed combustion appliance — a boiler, a gas or oil fire, a wood burner or a solid fuel stove. Gas cookers are excluded from the rented-sector requirement, but an alarm is still sensible.
CO alarms are separate devices from smoke alarms and are positioned differently, following the manufacturer's instructions relative to the appliance.
These come from BS 5839-6. The Grade describes the equipment — Grade D1 is mains-powered with a tamper-proof backup, D2 with a replaceable battery backup, Grade F is battery only. The Category describes the coverage — LD3 covers escape routes only, LD2 adds high-risk rooms, LD1 covers everywhere.
A typical loft conversion or new build specification is Grade D interlinked, LD2 or LD3 depending on the building control requirement.
A single chirp every 30–60 seconds is usually a low backup battery or an end-of-life warning — most alarms expire after about 10 years, and the manufacture date is printed on the unit. Full false alarms are often dust, steam, insects or a unit sited too near a kitchen or bathroom.
Do not remove the alarm and leave it off. If it is mains-wired and interlinked, an end-of-life unit in a linked system usually means the whole set is due for replacement.
Since February 2022 every home in Scotland must have interlinked alarms: one smoke alarm in the most frequently used room, one in every hallway or landing, and a heat alarm in the kitchen — plus a CO alarm where there is a carbon-fuelled appliance.
They can be sealed tamper-proof long-life battery units or mains-wired, but they must be interlinked.