Installing your Alarm

Smoke and Heat Alarms

• Alarms should be sited on the ceiling, as centrally as possible within the room/area they are installed.
• Site 300mm from walls, light fittings or any obstructions – this is to ensure that they are outside of any ‘dead air’ spaces that occur in corners and spaces where the airflow may be blocked.
• There should be an alarm within 3m of every bedroom door to ensure audibility.
• Alarms should be positioned between high-risk rooms and bedrooms.
• Alarms should not be sited within bathrooms or too close to a bathroom door as steam and moisture can affect them.

Other Factors to Consider:

Stairways:

• Site alarms on the flat ceilings at the top and bottom of the stairs – do not install on the sloped ceiling directly above the stairs.

Peaked and sloped ceilings:

• Smoke Alarms – site a maximum of 600mm vertically down from the apex
• Heat Alarms – a maximum of 150mm vertically down from the apex on the slope

Beams:

• Where the depth of the beam is less than 10% of the room height, install the alarm at a distance of twice the depth of the beam or 500mm, whichever is less.
• Where the depth of the beam is more than 10% of the room height – treat the beam as a wall and fit alarms on both sides of the beam, or if the beam is less than 600mm deep, install an alarm on the underside of the beam.