Introducing HomeLINK Case Management – register your interest here

Product FAQs

Legislation

Difference between legislation and British Standard?

What’s the difference between legislation and British Standards?

Legislation is a law or a set of laws that have been passed by Parliament. If a law is breached, the guilty party may find themselves served with a lawsuit. The court may issue an order to appear, and failure to comply can result in imprisonment and/or fines. Legislation is mandatory.

The BSI is the UK’s National Standards Body (NSB). The British Standards are developed by dedicated panels of experts, with technical committees. The Standards are in place as a model of best practice and guidance – not affiliated with legislation. The government will consider the Standards when writing legislation and guidance documents, with the Standards used to provide technical detail.

Fire and carbon monoxide alarm legislation can be found here.

Information on British Standards can be found here.

What alarms do I fit to meet the legislation?

England Legislation

Owner Occupied – No requirements for existing privately owned properties.

Rented – A working smoke alarm on each level of the property where there is living accommodation. No distinction of the grade of alarm required.

A carbon monoxide alarm should be sited in any room containing a fuel burning appliance (excluding cookers). These alarms can be either battery-powered or mains-powered. The 3000 Series and 200 Series would be suitable here.

Wales Legislation

Owner Occupied – No requirements for existing privately owned properties.

Rented – A mains powered smoke alarm should be sited on every level of the property where there is living accommodation. These alarms should be interlinked. These alarms must be mains powered and interlinked (either by hard wire or radio frequency). Aico’s 3000 Series alarms or the 140e Series alarms would be suitable here.

Landlords should consider if more alarms are needed (such as heat in the kitchen). Any additional alarms can be battery-powered and do not necessarily need to be interlinked. The 600 Series would be suitable here.

A carbon monoxide (CO) alarm should be installed when any new or replacement fuel burning appliance is installed, located in the same room as the appliance. This includes cookers. These alarms can be either battery-powered or mains-powered. The 3000 Series and 200 Series would be suitable here.

Scotland Legislation

Rented and owner occupied – A Category LD2 system with one smoke alarm in the principle habitable room, one smoke alarm in every circulation space, one heat alarm in every kitchen, and all interlinked. A CO alarm is to be installed where there is a fuel burning appliance or flue. All alarms can be either Grade F1 or Grade D1/D2 and can be a mixture of the two.

A CO alarm is to be installed where there is a fuel burning appliance or flue.

Northern Ireland Legislation

Owner Occupied – No requirements for existing privately owned properties.

Rented – A smoke alarm must be installed in every circulation space on each storey of the property, as well as the principal habitable room. A heat alarm must be installed in every kitchen. A CO alarm must also be installed in any room or circulation space containing a fixed combustion appliance or flue.

Best Practice

What alarms do I fit to meet the British standard?

Grade D1 fire alarm systems are recommended by the British Standards for rented properties, new build and existing short-term lets and existing 1-2 storey HMO’s.

In owner occupied new builds, a Grade D2 alarm system is recommended.

British Standards recommend the alarm systems in sheltered housing to be Grade D2 in individual dwellings, and Grade A in communal areas. Aico do not manufacturer products suitable for a Grade A system.

What’s the difference between Grades and Categories? (Installation Certificate)

Fire alarm grades are used to place fire alarms under a particular set of criteria. A grade is assigned to each individual model of alarm and don’t directly relate to alarm system categories.

Grade D1 – Mains operated alarm, including a tamperproof battery back-up. Aico’s 3000 Series alarms are Grade D1.

Grade D2 – Mains operated alarm, including a user replaceable battery back-up. Aico’s 140e Series alarms are Grade D2.

Grade F1 – Tamper-proof battery operated alarm. Aico’s 600 Series alarms are Grade F1.

Information on Grade A, Grade C, and Grade F2 alarms can be found here. Aico do not manufacture fire alarms to meet these grades.

Carbon monoxide alarms do not come under any grade.

The category of system details the level of protection an alarm system provides. This is broken down into three categories. Generally speaking, the higher the category of system, the higher the level of protection as the property will have more alarms installed and in more areas.

A Category LD1 system is considered high protection, with alarms installed in all areas where a fire could start, such as hallways, landings, living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, airing cupboards and meter cupboards.

Category LD2 provides a medium level of protection, covering all areas that form part of an escape route, the kitchen and principle habitable room. Any other areas/rooms that present a high fire risk should be covered by fire detection.

A Category LD3 system is minimum protection, covering all circulations spaces/areas forming part of an escape route from the property.

Across all categories, alarms should not be installed within toilets, bathrooms/wet rooms.

Fire alarm grades and categories are separate to each other, but used together to determine the type and quantity of products required for an installation. Alarm grades and categories are used in both the British Standards and legislation, although, following the British Standards will usually mean that you are compliant with the relevant legislation.

We’re Here To Help

Find the information you need in our library of educational and informative resources.

FAQs
Send Us A Message:
enquiries@aico.co.uk
Give Us A Call:
01691 664 100
AccountabilityAirplane all_in_onearrow_downArrow Left Arrow Right audiobattery bedroom-fill bedroom bell blocks book_open books bulb calendar-time calendar cart Error circle-validclock cloud-upload cloud comments crossdata_download detectorsdining-room-fill document download-thin download exclamation filter fire-cloud firegarage-fill garagegatewayGroup-385guaranteegw-dashboard-red gw-doc-red gw-notifications-red gw-property gw-reduce gw-smartlink-red gw-time-red gw-wifi-red hallway-fill hallwayshand-heart hash headset hobicon-digital icon-easi-fit icon-sensor icon-switch icon-wireless infokey kitchen-fill kitchenlanding-fill landingslaptop launch living-room-fill living-roomloan-2 loan location-crosshairlocation-pin loft-fill loftmicrobiology mould_preventionnetwork no-cable opening_times opening-times Passionpeople phone-call Phone play position-pin pound-sign power presentation preventative_maintenancereading real-estate residentsretrofit_validationSafer-Communitiessalary savings search sensor settings-1 settings Share-Geniusshare sheild shield single-position smoke-alarm social_facebooksocial_googleplussocial_instagramsocial_linkedin_altsocial_linkedinsocial_pinterestsocial-share social-tiktoklogo-twitter-glyph-32social-xsocial-youtube spanner stairstail-left tail-right Team-Workticktrash Trustupdate-phone user verified warning-sign wifi-protected