New Scottish Legislation for Fire and Smoke Alarms

Scottish legislation has changed. Introduced in February 2019, the change applies to all households in Scotland and states that an interlinked Fire and Smoke alarm system must be fitted in your property and that there should be adequate Carbon Monoxide protection.

Fire and smoke alarm legislation has changed in Scotland in recent years

This legislative change to the Tolerable Standard covers all homes, both in the private and social housing sectors. The standard now requires a fully interconnected ‘Category LD2’ Fire and Smoke alarm system. This means every property should have:

• 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

Fire and Smoke alarms must be interlinked and this can be achieved via traditional cabling methods or wirelessly, using Radio Frequency technology. This new legislation also requires a Carbon Monoxide detector to be installed where there is a fuel-burning appliance (such as boilers, fires, heaters and stoves) or where there is a flue.

If you already have Fire and Smoke alarms installed in your property, check that they are interlinked – if you press the test button on one alarm, they should all sound. If you have an alarm system but it does not currently meet the new requirements, you can expand and interlink your system with wireless Radio Frequency interconnection. By having an interlinked system, the whole alarm system will be triggered if one alarm is activated meaning you are alerted immediately in the event of a fire.

If you need to expand your current alarm system, or if access to a permanent live is difficult, tamper proof long-life battery powered alarms can be used in place of main powered alarms with the tamper proof long-life battery back-up, providing they can be interconnected. The Aico 600 Series Fire and Smoke alarms are battery powered units that meet this requirement, whereas the Aico 3000 Series is the mains powered equivalent.

Aico, an Ei Company, are the European market leader in home life safety, pioneering new technologies and offering high quality alarms, developed and manufactured in Ireland. All Aico alarms meet UK standards and offer a variety of sensor types to guarantee protection for every home, the cornerstone of which is delivering education, quality, service and innovation. Aico have expanded their Connected Home offering through HomeLINK. HomeLINK are a multi-award-winning high-tech software team within Aico that leverage cutting edge home integration and analytic technologies to address the needs of social landlords and their residents.

To find your local trained Aico Expert Installer, please visit: www.aico.co.uk/find-an-installer.